Dr. Richard PayneProfessor of Medicine and DivinityDirector of the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life at Duke Divinity Schoolhttp://divinity.duke.edu/academics/faculty/richard-payneDr. Payne, a palliative care physician, is an expert in the areas of pain relief, care for those near death, oncology and neurology. He has served on numerous panels and advisory committees, and testified to the Congressional Black Caucus National Brain Trust and the President's Cancer Panel on health care access disparities in cancer care, palliative medicine and end-of-life care.Quote:"Dr. Kevorkian was a distraction to the cause of better end of life care. Although touted as a means to allow people to 'die with dignity,' in reality people who used his suicide machines often died in isolation and without the benefit of a caring community."Palliative care and hospice care, which attends to suffering and the needs of 'whole persons' -- body, mind and spirit -- are far better alternatives than assisted suicide for the vast majority of people facing the end of their lives."
