Not the Time: A Personal Reflection on Counseling Families on End-of-Life Decisions

Authors

  • Karen Neuman Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI

Abstract

"Not the Time" refers to my experience as a medical social worker in assisting families as they face decisions about removing life-supports of a terminal ill family member. This story comes out of: my struggle with these decisions; my strong disagreement with Dr. Kevorkian; and my concern with what I perceive as our "cultural obsession" with denying our own mortality. The unintentional outcome of writing this narrative resulted in resolving my ambivalence toward physician assisted suicide.Copyright of Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping is theproperty of Cleveland State University and its content may not be copied oremailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyrightholder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, oremail articles for individual use.

Author Biography

Karen Neuman, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI

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How to Cite

Neuman, K. (2014). Not the Time: A Personal Reflection on Counseling Families on End-of-Life Decisions. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 4(3), 50–55. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/567

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Section

General Submissions