Andre said:
Anyway, I've been preoccupied with watching my inlaw dad die in slow motion this month. It took about 10 days, after he was discharged from hospital, because the treatment of the illness was even worse to his organs. There were no more options left.
The last two days were really awful. Nobody should have to suffer like that. Really shocking. You'd like to shout to the doc, just to increase the dose of morphine more and more.
But that's illegal, which seems to be more important than useless suffering.
My story is a little different. I was young and naïve when my father died. He was 51. He had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The cause was unknown but all of his siblings had died from it, as well. He was on a transplant list, but like most patients with IPF, he died from complications due to pneumonia. He might have lasted a little longer if the doctor had prescribed the correct antibiotics for the type of pneumonia that he had. He was seeing a lung specialist in the city, but in the end, his family practitioner treated him. He was new and mistakes happen.
However, he promised me that he wouldn’t suffer. He said that he could have as much morphine as he needed. He explained the whole process, and how he’d eventually slip into a coma, but he kept waking up, grasping for breath, and he was very afraid. The whole process took about 5 days. My father made me promise that I’d get him more morphine whenever he squeezed my hand, but when I went to locate his nurse, she informed me that he had received the legal limit. He suffered terribly and so did I.
The day after he passed away his lung specialist called me. When I told him what had happened, he lost his temper, cursed a little, and then told me that they had given him the wrong antibiotics, and that there was no such thing as a legal limit. We met with the medical board, who after speaking with the nurse, told us that she did not want to contribute to his death, due to her religious beliefs. It was a religious hospital.
Of course, they were very concerned about a lawsuit, but the story became public, and that was enough for me.
I believe in the right to die but this guy does have some valid points. What he revealed was society’s innate and primitive principle regarding even pain relief for the dying. We have not even begun to distinguish facts from fiction in the laws of pain relief, much less suicide.
Do people have the right to choose when to die?-Bigthink.com
About half of patients dying of cancer have severe pain. Yet, only half of these patients receive reliable pain relief. We can relieve the pain, but because of the misconceptions regarding pain and the drugs used, many patients die in agony.
In my father’s case, the nurse was dumb enough to put this in her notes,
“Moaning and crying out-will continue to monitor.” Her reasoning stemmed from her religious convictions but usually it is from fear of criminal liability.
Dyspnea is one of the most feared symptoms. This was also my father’s biggest fear, but morphine can actually reduce dyspnea and the anxiety, without causing harmful respiratory depression.
This happens all the time. It’s very common. The fears that people have about dying in pain are justified. There is an alarming lack of sensitivity regarding this issue.
I think that many people feel that it is an invasion of bodily integrity to force life sustaining medical treatments but it is not an invasion to restrict physician assistant suicide. I don’t get it, though. We have this strong innate desire to reduce suffering for the living but not for the dying. What business is it of society to require this prolongation and suffering? In my opinion, it all boils down to GOD. We want them to die naturally, in god’s hands. Am I right?
http://www.hospicepatients.org/euth-acct-three.html
When I first found out that my father was terminal, I would have done anything in my power to keep him alive. I even asked myself if it was selfish to want him to suffer so that I could have him for a few more minutes. One minute seemed so valuable but to him a minute seemed like an eternity. Trust me… if this woman had watched her mother suffer, as I had with my father, she would have been grateful that her mother remained in a coma. Although, I am an atheist, I prayed…I prayed for him to die. Nobody should have to suffer like that.
lisab said:
There is, in some states (Washington and Oregon, maybe more). But it must be arranged well in advance of being needed, as it has to be reviewed by third parties.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/11252526-418/assisted-suicide-doctor-peter-goodwin-dead-at-83.html
"The Portland physician died Sunday in his home after using lethal chemicals obtained under an Oregon law he championed."
Dr. Peter Goodwin
Borek said:
Nor is your avatar.
