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"Death With Dignity" laws...my sister is irate!
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 350386" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>This is not always a b/w issue. Sometimes for various reasons, a person can end up on a ventilator, as my sister has, when nobody KNOWS if it's terminal, or if it's just a short-term measure. I remember being at a medical conference once and the keynote speaker said, "Most patients, the majority, are admitted to intensive care, their lives saved, and then eventually discharged and we never to have a definitive diagnosis for them."</p><p></p><p>My sister is currently improving very slowly and breathing on her own (with a little bit of oxygen handy). But she's just been told her condition is terminal. However, they didn't know that when they were fighting to save her life. Plus there is a SLIGHT chance, and her current improvement indicates she could be in that minor percentage that survives to recover lung function. She could recover completely, not simply recover to be discharged form hospital as an oxygen-dependent invalid. But we still don't know.</p><p></p><p>When the initial diagnosis was made, the family could have chosen then to let her die. In her current 'down' moments, she's saying she wishes she had died. But she has a chance of total recovery, plus those who do recover follow the same pattern and treatments that we see in her.</p><p></p><p>SIL1's mother is a partial quadriplegic. She's been fed up with it for years. Then she was diagnosed with cancer. We don't know what kind of cancer, we only know she refused all cancer treatment. She won't talk to her son about it. Now in her case, she sees the cancer as her ticket out of here and has been happy to let it happen. However, I see her as someone who now has to endure a great deal more pain in order to hasten her death this way. Again, it's been her choice, but surely there could have been an easier way? easy child tells me (SIL1 doesn't know) that her mother-in-law has stockpiled some morphine to use as a lethal dose when it all gets too much for her.</p><p></p><p>We also have mortality tourism happening here - I know people who've gone to Switzerland to support someone who has chosen to die. The laws here are still very strict, but patients can refuse medical treatment (as easy child's mother-in-law has) to hasten death. My mother did this. I believe her aunt did as well. And with my father, he was in increasing pain and they pushed his morphine dose up to deal with the pain, even though they knew it was going to lethal levels. But that isn't strictly euthanasia here, it's considered palliative care - to knock out the pain as a priority, in someone who is clearly dying anyway.</p><p></p><p>It's an interesting debate. I understand the concerns of those who feel that death shouldn't be made too available, or people in despair will act even though their lives are not truly in extremis. We had a very publicised case of a woman who did TV interviews and everything, on how she was determined to end her own life. And she did. But on autopsy, they couldn't find anything wrong, not the cancer she thought was the cause of her extreme pain.</p><p></p><p>I've also been in severe pain that felt like water torture, unending, apparently untreatable, greatly limiting my ability to do anything. Then finally a doctor started me on morphine. I realise now the dose was stronger than I needed, but the bliss of the relief from pain was so uplifting! That would have been about 14 years ago now. I still take morphine (yes, the dose has increased - but recently decreased a little as physiotherapy has helped ease some of the elements of the pain) and the pain is never completely gone. But I can function again.</p><p></p><p>I worry that some people will make a terminal decision while believing they have tried all options, when maybe they haven't. Some doctors here tend to crusade on euthanasia, and so perhaps don't put much effort into trying to help the patient stay alive in comfort. My pain specialist is a palliative care doctor, he must see a lot of patients for whom death is the only option left. There will be a lot of morphine drips he's authorised to be turned up that little bit more... but with me (and husband - also a patient) he works to find ways to help us function in life.</p><p></p><p>That is balance, and I think it is balance that the subject needs. Those with a vested interest either way can be a concern, in this debate.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 350386, member: 1991"] This is not always a b/w issue. Sometimes for various reasons, a person can end up on a ventilator, as my sister has, when nobody KNOWS if it's terminal, or if it's just a short-term measure. I remember being at a medical conference once and the keynote speaker said, "Most patients, the majority, are admitted to intensive care, their lives saved, and then eventually discharged and we never to have a definitive diagnosis for them." My sister is currently improving very slowly and breathing on her own (with a little bit of oxygen handy). But she's just been told her condition is terminal. However, they didn't know that when they were fighting to save her life. Plus there is a SLIGHT chance, and her current improvement indicates she could be in that minor percentage that survives to recover lung function. She could recover completely, not simply recover to be discharged form hospital as an oxygen-dependent invalid. But we still don't know. When the initial diagnosis was made, the family could have chosen then to let her die. In her current 'down' moments, she's saying she wishes she had died. But she has a chance of total recovery, plus those who do recover follow the same pattern and treatments that we see in her. SIL1's mother is a partial quadriplegic. She's been fed up with it for years. Then she was diagnosed with cancer. We don't know what kind of cancer, we only know she refused all cancer treatment. She won't talk to her son about it. Now in her case, she sees the cancer as her ticket out of here and has been happy to let it happen. However, I see her as someone who now has to endure a great deal more pain in order to hasten her death this way. Again, it's been her choice, but surely there could have been an easier way? easy child tells me (SIL1 doesn't know) that her mother-in-law has stockpiled some morphine to use as a lethal dose when it all gets too much for her. We also have mortality tourism happening here - I know people who've gone to Switzerland to support someone who has chosen to die. The laws here are still very strict, but patients can refuse medical treatment (as easy child's mother-in-law has) to hasten death. My mother did this. I believe her aunt did as well. And with my father, he was in increasing pain and they pushed his morphine dose up to deal with the pain, even though they knew it was going to lethal levels. But that isn't strictly euthanasia here, it's considered palliative care - to knock out the pain as a priority, in someone who is clearly dying anyway. It's an interesting debate. I understand the concerns of those who feel that death shouldn't be made too available, or people in despair will act even though their lives are not truly in extremis. We had a very publicised case of a woman who did TV interviews and everything, on how she was determined to end her own life. And she did. But on autopsy, they couldn't find anything wrong, not the cancer she thought was the cause of her extreme pain. I've also been in severe pain that felt like water torture, unending, apparently untreatable, greatly limiting my ability to do anything. Then finally a doctor started me on morphine. I realise now the dose was stronger than I needed, but the bliss of the relief from pain was so uplifting! That would have been about 14 years ago now. I still take morphine (yes, the dose has increased - but recently decreased a little as physiotherapy has helped ease some of the elements of the pain) and the pain is never completely gone. But I can function again. I worry that some people will make a terminal decision while believing they have tried all options, when maybe they haven't. Some doctors here tend to crusade on euthanasia, and so perhaps don't put much effort into trying to help the patient stay alive in comfort. My pain specialist is a palliative care doctor, he must see a lot of patients for whom death is the only option left. There will be a lot of morphine drips he's authorised to be turned up that little bit more... but with me (and husband - also a patient) he works to find ways to help us function in life. That is balance, and I think it is balance that the subject needs. Those with a vested interest either way can be a concern, in this debate. Marg [/QUOTE]
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"Death With Dignity" laws...my sister is irate!
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