Mercy Killing in NO?

Now, I cannot wait to see how you interpret the words above this time!

Thank you for answering my question.

If you look at my post it contains two questions and a hypothetical? I didn't say you do or read anything.

"Good Grief!...this is just terrible."

I beg your forgiveness for having to disagree with you, but there is nothing new about what is going on here. In fact it happens everyday in hospitals throughout our country, and the world.

My wife of 21 years has been a Critical/ Special care RN since we have been married, and she has seen this practice take place since she became a Nurse. In fact,Doctors(at the behest of families) have been administering some form of comfort drug, to ease dying patients suffering for ages.

We have 2 very good friends who are Doctors, and we have talked to them about this particular practice in length. In their words, this is only done when the patient is already in the process of dying, and the morphine is administered as a way of "taking the edge off" of what is viewed as, "the patients suffering".

Does this in fact speed up the dying process? Yes and no. Pain medications generally suppress the central nervous system, therefore respiration, as well as heart rate can and usually will decrease. For a suffering patient whom the attending Physician considers, "may improve", the doctor will most likely hold back from administering morphine or other pain medication, so as to avoid the complications that might result from low respiration or heart rate. IF it is administered, it is usually very low dose, so as to prevent any complications that could result from low heart rate or respiration.

Administering pain medications for the terminally ill, is not considered Euthanasia by the Doctors or the Nurses, but instead as a way of aiding comfort to the dying. Hence, the saying,"easing them out". In light of the fact that pain medications do decrease respiration and heart rate, it is often viewed as speeding up dying.

If you have ever had to sit and watch a terminal patient( dying parent or any loved one) go into the last stages of dying, it is safe to say that you would want them to be made as comfortable as possible, and to prevent what you would most likely consider as, "their suffering".

Morphine is perhaps one of the most effective drugs used to ease pain or patient suffering,( I can personally attest to this!) and is about all anyone can do to aid the patient when the Family and the Doctor agree that death is imminent.

As for my comment about this Post: I seriously doubt that many doctors are administering drugs simply to kill off people who are sick. I'm sure that there will always be a "Kevorkian" out there somewhere, but the vast majority of Doctors want their patients conditions to improve, and find very little comfort in anyones death.

So I agree, that this is sensationalism once again, for the sake of continued viewer-ship by the media.

Apparently, the story of Katrina's victims, is getting old.

It's called the principle of double effect. The intention to relieve pain and panic caused when the ventilators went off would be ethical, even if the relief of pain and distress blunted the patient's drive to breathe.

I hope and pray that the doctors can tell us that they were only relieving the symptoms of the suffering for those they couldn't help and that their intent wasn't to kill their patients before disease or someone else could.

Just a daytime bump.

Good for you, you do well!!