It is already here - a Hospice House here does the exact same thing - withholds food and gives morphine IV to keep the patient unconscious until the patient dies.
My husband's doctor wanted me to send him to a Hospice House and my husband was sitting up and talking and making sense. His sister and I went to the Hospice House to go through it.
There was a room set aside for a funeral home to come talk to you to plan the funeral. Any person going into Hospice will never come out alive and that is the truth.
When I got back to the hospital, I spoke to a lady doctor who was actually in charge of his case. She told me Hospice takes no measure to keep a patient alive, they are sent there to die. I would not send him there and he lived over a month longer, still talking to us.
If you look up the definition of "hospice", you find this:
1. a house of shelter or rest for pilgrims, strangers, etc., especially one kept by a religious order.
2. Medicine/Medical A. A health-care facility for the terminally ill that emphasizes pain control and emotional support for the patient and family, typically refraining from taking extraordinary measures to prolong life.
B. A similar program of care and support for the terminally ill at home.
Hospice at home is likely not to have the person on a morphine drip - it would have to be pills unless there is a nurse there constantly to see about the IV.
The truth about Hospice Houses in our country is not being told. They pretend to be swell, caring places, then, in my opinion, they murder the patients and would have murdered my husband.
That stops the Medicare cost - sedate them, withhold food/moisture and they die, just like in England.
Don't any of you write a post to me about how fine Hospice Houses are - if you believe that, you don't know the truth. I found out the truth.
I practice medicine. Many of my patients are elderly and in ill health. Hospice is supposed to be for people who are not expected to live longer than 6 months.
Many of my chronically ill patients who accepted hospice care died within days to weeks. One died before the hospice nurses could get to him. Another one with terminal chronic obstructive pulmonary disease got kicked out of hospice after 8 months. He died 4 months later. Just like life, every death is different
I am fortunate in that the geographical area I live in is very Red and still adheres to Christian, American values. We see death as a part of life and don’t try to hurry it along. It is still very hard to see a loved one get ready to leave this life. I fully expect that there will be a lot of hospice horror stories coming out of blue areas with large populations of “progressives” and forty-seven percenters. Heck, there probably already are.
My father died last year. He had Alzheimer’s disease but it was the recurrence of his prostate cancer that finally took him. He had recorded advance directives that specifically forbade any kind of intervention other than “comfort care”. When he started to get really sick the hospice staff gave him regular injections of morphine. Eventually he didn’t need them because he stopped drinking and died 4 days later. He was “on hospice” for a total of 12 days. In my opinion, he died a good death. His suffering was minimal and he did not linger.
I would advise everyone who reads this to record advance directives (a “living will”) while you are healthy so that your family will be aware of your wishes and ready to fight for you should it come to that.