Posts Tagged ‘Aid in Dying’

Oct 24, 2012Physician-Assisted Death Is Illegal in Most States, so My Patient Made Another Choice

by David Muller
Health Affairs
October 23, 2012

Charles—Charlie, as I came to know him—greeted me at the door wearing only his boxer shorts and a full head of tousled white hair. Ninety-one-year-old folds of skin hung loosely from his lanky, bent, but powerful frame.

My first impression was of an aged Abraham Lincoln: strong and gangly, dignified despite the boxers, with a mischievous smile that I would later learn never left his face except when his pain overwhelmed him. He had the grip of a man half his age, and after shaking his hand I had to look to make sure all my fingers were still there.

I was seeing Charlie because he’d been referred to Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors, a home care program by physicians for homebound elderly patients in Manhattan. The first day I visited him, Charlie led me into his one-bedroom apartment, using the walls and the backs of chairs to make his way into the living room. Cluttered and lived in, it was an obstacle course of well-worn furniture and fraying rugs. No matter where you sat, bowls of Life Savers and foil-wrapped chocolate kisses were strategically within arm’s reach.

Over the years Charlie had gradually limited his usual daytime range to within ten feet of his sofa, whose sagging cushions welcomed the weight of his aching bones. He invited me to sit with him and, in his plainspoken, self-effacing manner, responded to my questions by telling me his life story. More

Oct 9, 2012When Prolonging Death Seems Worse Than Death

NPR
October 9, 2012

Many of us think of death as the worst possible outcome for a terminally ill patient, but Judith Schwarz disagrees.

Schwarz, a patient supporter at the nonprofit Compassion & Choices, says prolonging death can be a far worse fate. For many patients, good palliative or hospice care can alleviate suffering, yet “a small but significant proportion of dying patients suffer intolerably,” Schwarz says.

Based in the New York area, Compassion & Choices is an organization that helps terminally ill patients and their families make informed and thoughtful end-of-life decisions to hasten a patient’s death. These decisions are not made impulsively, Schwarz tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “Nobody makes this choice unless the burdens of living have so consistently, day after day, outweighed all benefit.” More

Oct 5, 2012New Aid-in-Dying Service Getting Inquiries

by Chad Blair
Honolulu Civil Beat
October 5, 2012

Compassion & Choices Hawaii, a nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life, received 31 local inquiries in its first year of service.

The figure comes from an annual report released by the Physician Advisory Council for Aid in Dying, or PACAID, a group of local doctors that collaborates with Compassion & Choices Hawaii and can prescribe life-ending medication if necessary.

PACAID has a rigorous eligibility process that applicants must go through, and of those 31 inquiries only seven qualified to consult with a PACAID doctor.

Of the seven, four received a prescription for medication “which they could ingest to end their life and suffering in peace and dignity, at the time of their choosing,” according to a Compassion & Choices press release.

As of Thursday, two of the four patients died from natural causes and none had taken the medication.

“Terminally ill people get peace of mind from knowing they can request medication that will allow them to achieve a peaceful death,” Mary Steiner, campaign manager for Compassion & Choices Hawaii, said in a statement. “Some people get a prescription and don’t take the medication for weeks or months. They go on living their life.”

Steiner dismissed arguments from opponents of aid in dying that patients would use the medication prematurely.

“The report shows just the opposite, as we have seen in other states where the option is available,” she said. “Patients frequently say that the peace of mind and control they gain makes it easier to live out their remaining days.” More

Sep 27, 2012New Jersey Could Become 3rd State With Right-to-Die Law

By Tina Susman
The Los Angeles Times
September 27, 2012

A New Jersey lawmaker has proposed a right-to-die law for that state’s terminally ill people which, if passed, would make the state the third in the nation after Oregon and Washington to allow those with deadly diseases the chance to end their own suffering.

The Death With Dignity Act would allow a “qualified patient to self-administer medication to end life in a humane and dignified manner,” said the bill, introduced this week by Democratic Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester). But as the Star-Ledger noted, it would not be easy to qualify to receive life-ending drugs.

An individual who has six months or less to live would have to make at least two verbal requests and one written request — with two witnesses on hand for the written request — before he or she could receive the medication. Two doctors would have to certify the terminal diagnosis, and those doctors would be required to send the patient for counseling. The bill in its current form also says voter approval would be needed for the law to take effect as it is now written.

Burzichelli said he expects lengthy debate on the bill. “This is the beginning of discussing a topic … we’ve got to get a sense of how people feel,” he said, the Star-Ledger reported. “People are not favorable to a Dr. Kevorkian suicide bill that says someone who’s 45 and depressed and decides to kill themselves with help. That’s not what this bill is.” More

Sep 24, 20125 Reasons I Won’t Die the Way My Mother Did

By Erica Manfred
Next Avenue
September 21, 2012

When a parent dies, it’s common for surviving children to have a raft of regrets, from not spending more time with Dad to not telling Mom you loved her to failing to do more for them in their final years. Today there’s often one other regret in the mix — not protecting a parent from invasive end-of-life interventions.

Few of us die in our own beds now. Modern medicine keeps many of us living longer, and then some of us die by inches, in an ICU or on a ventilator, sedated or in excruciating pain, while others fade slowly with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. When my mother died 15 years ago, after much unnecessary suffering, I determined to keep her fate from becoming mine.

Mom was an extremely healthy and active woman who, until age 85, had few medical problems besides arthritis. In her mid-80s she displayed some memory loss, though nothing that inhibited her lifestyle. I suspected she was developing Alzheimer’s, as her brother had, but that she had many active years left. She also had a heart valve that needed replacing or she’d face serious restrictions of her daily activities, along with an increased likelihood of a heart attack.

She wanted the surgery, and it was a success. But then she had an allergic, near-fatal reaction to the valve, after which she went rapidly downhill cognitively and became unable to take care of herself and severely depressed. Two years later, when her kidneys failed, her doctor suggested dialysis, which would have gone against her living will specifying no further invasive treatments. I arrived at her Florida home just in time to refuse the dialysis. She died peacefully at home, under hospice care, two weeks later. We had spoken about her wishes, and I knew that’s what she wanted.

After my mom passed away, I realized that I had to begin to make hard decisions about my own death, when I was still relatively young and healthy, to avoid an equally drawn-out end. Jane Brody, a New York Times health columnist and author of Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life, helped me craft these five steps, designed to increase one’s chances of a dignified death (although there are, of course, no guarantees): More

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