My grandfather was diagnosed with advance pancreatic cancer at the age of 87. There were no real treatment options and he wasn't willing to do something that was as likely to kill him as it was to add a couple months.
The hospice care was done in his home by a group of nuns. They kept his pain level tolerable, but didn't give him so much that he wasn't alert. He went in and out of consciousness the last couple of days, but it wasn't due to the morphine.
I think hospice started out as a very noble idea, but it has since been basically overtaken by the culture of death and is being used to a lot of people who aren't even actually dying.
My mother also had hospice in her home which was then an assisted living facility. A nun was her visitor but did not administer meds. I did. Because she was on hospice, she was allowed to have morphine. She died because her skin was gradually deteriorating, a very painful death had it not been for the morphine. I did administer it so that she didn’t have to climb in and out of pain. She slipped away knowing she was loved and knowing she was going home. My dad, who had died some years earlier, slipped away the next day. He had been waiting for her.
I'm glad his wishes were respected, and he was able to manage his remaining time here. My experiences with hospices have likewise been good.
I think hospice started out as a very noble idea, but it has since been basically overtaken by the culture of death and is being used to a lot of people who aren't even actually dying.
I think that's no surprise, given the questioning of individual patient's rights and preferences, and the strong push for "the government knows best" approach. The primary focus of end-of-life care should be what the patient wants.