Posted on 08/23/2011 1:55:48 PM PDT by topher
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, August 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A recently retired New York Times reporter has penned a book in which she details how she followed through on a shocking pact to help her 88-year-old mother, Estelle, starve to death.
Julia Gross with her mother Estelle. In an excerpt from the book, “A Bittersweet Season,” published recently in the Daily Mail, Jane Gross describes her mother’s increasing dissatisfaction with life as her health deteriorated, and her mounting desire to die, despite the fact that she was not terminally ill.
“So here we were, my mother and I, wishing that she were terminally ill and feeling a bit creepy about it,” Gross writes about her conversations with her mother about her death wish.
Gross admits that there “was no pretending I hadn’t been part of her decision [to die], and had arguably even encouraged it,” but argues that she made sure that her mother, with whom she had never been particularly close, was “doing this for herself,” and not out of a desire to spare her children “trouble and expense.”
Finally, after her mother spelled out the words “N-O-W,” Gross met with staff at the hospice where her mother was being cared for, and thus began the lengthy and grueling process of her mother’s death by starvation and dehydration – a process that staff had told Gross would only last a week, but that actually lasted 13 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
oh, and for those who aren't sure, this is really sick.
If you’ve killed a few of your babies, why not your mother, too?
I”m not advocating euthanasia, but wouldn’t it be kinder to at least afford them as much care as we give our pets? NO ONE would even allow this kind of treatment for an animal. What is wrong with some Americans?
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Life has little meaning for the Godless.
Good Gawwwddd...that is one sick-minded woman. She must’ve whined every day to put her mother in such a state of mind. Can you imagine being so unwanted by your own child that they would encourage you to do yourself in?
I’ve seen someone starve to death and it is ugly.
Lots of cancer patients go out that way when they cannot ingest food... Nor even water... It takes longer than you think.
I can’t even put into words how repugnant I find this. This woman is a worthless, contemptible, pile of excrement.
I read a little bit of the article in The Mail. The relationship between mother and daughter seemed cold and unloving and after reading that far I wasn’t surprised at all. The sad thing is that the rest of us will live with the consequences that spring from what THEY want.
Are we desensitized to shame. Or is there no shame anymore. Selling a book about killing one's mother. I think our spiralling, shameless moral decline is why we will re-elect Obama. There is no more shame. You'll see four more years.
If she wasn’t terminally ill that hospice should be investigated and so should the doctor who certified her.
This is the criteria that must be followed to be admitted to hospice:
Physician certifies a life expectancy of six months or less if the disease progression runs its ordinary course (hospice eligibility re-certification every 60 days)
Patient or legal guardian elects Hospice benefit
Patient resides in service area
Non-Cancer Diagnoses:
Alzheimer’s/Dementia
Heart Disease
Respiratory/Emphysema
Stroke
Kidney/Liver Disease
Debility
Starvation deaths are very unpleasant.
Abortion gets ‘em on one end, this gets em on the other. A worldview that accepts abortion has no problem accepting killing the elderly.
Thank you for your comment (post #4). I always felt guilty about pulling the feeding tube on my dying mother (brain cancer) but it was the most humane thing I could do. I know she’s in heaven thanking me.
Pets are not people. They are loved, they are family members. Most people can see taking care of moms and dads, or having them at a place they are taken care of when they need it. Not many people can stop life to take care of a pet animal, or justify the funds to do so, no matter how much the animal is loved.
Animals also cannot tell you exactly what their wishes are or if they change their minds.
Further animals, being innocent creatures, have no need to be saved, their eternal destination is secure - back to God. Killing off people prematurely may take away the time they need and experiences they need in order to develop a saving faith.
Perhaps you should have picked a different story to express your opinion on, as this woman wasn’t terminal.
I’ve seen the long and harrowing and sad decline at the end of cancer too. It broke our hearts to see my young uncle die like that. He was 54. It was 4 years ago,and still makes me cry when I think of how he bravely suffered until he went home to Jesus.
If your mom was terminal and in the process of dying, you were just letting the natural death process occur. As long as pain is managed and you know she’s saved, there’s nothing else you can do.
BTW, did Julia and her mother Estelle pay for the hospice care (for starving her) or did the taxpayers pick up the tab for this starvation?
I tried to find an email link for Julia Gross to ask her but didn’t find one!
******
PAYMENT (for hospice)
What if a patient does not have insurance?
Hospice is a non-profit agency that serves all regardless of ability to pay. Everyone is guaranteed the same high quality care.
How is hospice care paid for?
Hospice is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurances. However, we offer care to everyone in need regardless of their ability to pay.
Is hospice care expensive?
All expenses related to the terminal diagnosis are covered under hospice care.
“Starvation deaths are very unpleasant.”
If I may append a brutal fact, such deaths are from dehydration, not starvation.
Such deaths are far from free of suffering, but I will spare fellow FReepers the details.
Death by dehydration is easy to spot on the patient charts - look for the NPO which medicalese for Non Per Orem which is nothing by mouth. NPO and no IV for any length of time can only result in dehydration.
Why we approve this form of torture/death instead of allowing a drug to induce a painless death is something I have not understood.
Perhaps others might have more data?
>>The day I left for university, with my father driving me, we had not completely backed out of the driveway before she had filled the rubbish bins outside the house with my old school uniforms, boxes of the poems I had written, and other cherished possessions — now just clutter to be cleared away.<<
The woman hated her mother.
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