Posted on 08/31/2008 7:09:25 AM PDT by kellynla
You make good points, but “not dead yet” and pro life organizations disagree on some key points. There is a difference between being comfortable and “present” at your own death which many may want, and being completely knocked out never to come to. I know from personal experience that terminal sedation does notalways follow the path you claim, but does follow the pro euthansia track. After all, what is “terminal sedation” but euthanasia;that’s the case the pro euthanasia proponents make. I agree, but my agenda and theirs is different. Nor do I wish for any unnecessary suffering. But let’s be real, hospitals have more compelling objectives than just simply offering quality care. Money is the key here, and that perverts a pro-life point of view. What happens when disabled people are no longer valued. What about when the mentally ill are no longer perceived as living valuable, pain free lives? That day will come. I will be here then as now asking for clear deliniation. I know your chosen field of work is also a vocation. Bless you for all you do. V’s wife.
Well you know how I feel. Put the decisions into the families first and people who know what they’re doing next.
I think that will be the solution in most cases.
Did you have a bad experience?
There is indeed passive and active euthansia. Both are illegal in Georgia. Indeed it’s a slippery slope and it only takes one idiot to ruin it for everyone.
Nurses have ethics classes in schools...and there’s usually an ethics board at most hospitals.
But what lay people seem to not get sometimes is there’s situations out there worse than death.
We have to be BOTH very careful not to end life WHILE remembering it’s often cruel to keep a person alive because we can, with technology, medicine and means beyond their natural, God intended time on thie earth.
There are too many scenarios to go through but a recent memorable one for me was about 2 years ago now...
A sick woman was kept alive against her wishes...multiple strokes and sure enough even though she had a DNR, they revived her when her heart stopped.
Her husband had a fit, rightly so, legal action probably STILL going on.
Anyway, the massive stroke was so bad this time she was brain dead, permanent damage, in fact they removed HALF her brain because of massive clots. Half her head was literally caved in, no skull no nothing...it’s like her face got sucked into a hole into the side of her head.
Anyway, they took her off the vent and she lived, breathed on her own reflexively. She wasted away into nothing, even WITH articifial feedings, because the body simply did not process food normally anymore. (The brain controls alot of things!)
Horrible wounds opened up on her back, side and butt, not because she wasn’t turned, or washed or anything but because she wasn’t getting nutrition PROCESSED normally to repair daily body and skin, so she broke down, ganggrene and LITERALLY, SLOWLY rotted to death in front of him for 3 months.
About a week or so before she died he brought two pistols to my work, the hospice floor she was on, one for her and one for him, because emotionally a person can only withstand just so much. But the aide saw it and the staff called the cops and he was hauled off to the looney bin.
A few days later he got out and with armed guards he was allowed to visit until she finally died.
Keep in mind this was in a hospice! We had to strictly give her a normal amount of morphone for her pain, shortness of breath etc. By the time she did die, she got enough morphine to kill 10 horses.
(I once had a 20 something yr. old hispanic male addict with liver failure that got 10,000 milligrams of morphine per IV pump PER DAY!)
SO as you might imagine “terminal sedation” in the industry, means FIRST a person is dying (no matter what we do or don’t do, give or don’t give)...and we sedate accordingly for “terminal agitation”. OFTEN people think the medicine is what killed them when indeed it was not.
Another common misperception is people “starve to death” on hospice or when they’re terminal. What really happens is multi-system failure. It’s not that the AMOUNT of food is the issue so much as the organs can’t break down food anymore. So people give them food until they literally choke to death on it, or aspirate it and it gets into the lungs and causes pneumonia.
ICU’s generally don’t do a good job, because it’s not their deal. They’ve got too much going on as it is. It’s unfair to all.
Doctors often have some misguided notion that first do no harm means literally not allowing old people to die AT ANY cost.
Although I disagree with the Kevorkian’s and Hemlock society’s and of course those fly by the seat of their pants hospitals and doctors and so on that just give more meds. than necessary, not to be bothered with pt’s or families; I’m sure they’re out there, I just don’t see such a thing, very rarely if ever.
But like I said the heart-breaking truth where 99%+ of the problem lies is with those very same overwhelmed doctors, nurses, hospitals that don’t have time to properly educate families, and families too exhausted and the patient ends up suffering from our ridiculous “first do no harm” litigious society to the point we’re literally preserving people with tube feedings, often against their wishes, just so hospitals/nursing homes get their medicare payments, surgical bills paid, and children get their parents’ social security, retirement, or medicare checks...
frankly this is MUCH more the problem.
I’ve been to AIDS units and the lucky ones who had hospice got their pain relieved while others just screamed and screamed until they finally died.
So, in a sense you’re right that it’s about the money, but the true horror is they won’t get paid unless there’s a person to attach that bill to!
Leave end of life to legitimate hospices, to help the families through the inevitable.
Thanks so much for the kind words!
I think it’s so rewarding to me to make sure people die with dignity, without suffering that keeps me going.
I try to help people understand it’s not about the quantity of life, it’s about the quality of life, to make the most out of whatever our wonderous God may have in store for us while we are here, no matter what shape we’re in.
It’s not our job to speed it up or slow it down but make it bearable at every stage.
At the Right-to-Die meeting in Boston, several American physicians were reported to be “concerned that the palliative care movement, especially in the United States, was generally encouraging terminal sedation as a ‘good medical practice which could eventually be seen as a better alternative to physician-assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia.” Irwin concedes that by “creating the illusion of a natural death and avoiding the sense of urgency, for some terminally ill patients and their families, slow euthanasia may be more acceptable than rapid and fully acknowledged euthanasia.” This worries advocates of the lethal injection approach who are campaigning for the right to die by “rapidly effective lethal drugs”. However they hope to sway public opinion in this direction by various ploys. They will no doubt emphasise the disadvantages of “slow euthanasia”, referring to this as a lingering death, with loss of dignity, and distortion of the memory left in the minds of loved ones, in the hope that the public will clamour for a quick exit.(1) These points may be valid in some cases, but in general the public should be wary of propaganda and the use of emotive language. A lingering death for example, may also be a peaceful death that allows loved ones time to accept the inevitable. A calm but sedated person, lovingly cared for, need not lack dignity. Take away the propaganda factor and many of the points raised by advocates of euthanasia carry little weight.
http://www.catholicdoctors.org.uk/CMQ/Feb_2002/terminal_sedation.htm
The problem is, the aggresive using of terminal sedation is now upon us. The organization “not dead yet” and other pro life groups list cases to match all yours but on the other side with people being euthanized against their will. The scary thing is Hospice is in favor of it, but as the Dr.quoted in this article said, it is unregulated and thus open to abuse. So, while good folks like you err on the correct side, in some states where perhaps God and a prolife position are eschewed, this is not happening. I know here in New York state of a case where terminal sedation could have occurred but did not, but the region of the hospital is very Catholic and Christian. Some areas don’t have that cultural bias. That’s what worries me. Again, God bless you for your work and this intelligent debate which has been very informed and polite. Very best, V’s wife.
Interesting. I agree that too many shortcuts are taken, and of course I’m unfamiliar with how hospices work in New York, indeed outside of Atlanta.
You should see the volumes of articles of people kept alive past their wishes and/or suffering needlessly.
Both are obvious problems and you’re right it’s a slippery slope.
I’ve worked for no less than 8 hospices here over the years, and I’ve never seen even passive euthanasia outside of a home.
Unfortunately, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen people suffer unnecessarily and/or be kept alive well beyond their wishes though.
The key is education. Not only in end of life care but minmizing and eliminating stigmas about hospice.
Thank you too!
Having said that, I STILL agree that it's YOUR right. What this proposal suggests is putting the exercise of your right into another's (i.e., the government's) hands. Would you be willing to allow the government to handle your rights of property ownership? Bearing arms? Expressing your political opinions? You essentially remove your decision from the process...I would suspect many people have loaded a revolver, or walked to the edge of the cliff fully intent on killing themselves, and turning back at the very last second. Placing that decision in the hands of another is in actuality, a surrender of your right to make the decision, and potentially makes the other person nothing less than the murderer of a person who belatedly decided they really wanted to live.
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