It's not moral to compel suffering

[question everything]

It's not moral to compel suffering

Yet that's what we do if we deny the terminally ill the right to end their lives.

By TRISH GREEVES
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Last update: August 9, 2009

I recently attended the memorial service for a woman of deep faith and vibrant spirit who chose, with the support of her loving family, to have her pacemaker disabled to hasten the end of her terminal illness. Some weeks ago I was touched in a similar, albeit more distant, way by the story and picture of British conductor Edward Downes and his terminally ill wife of 54 years, who died together holding hands in the Swiss clinic run by the assisted suicide group Dignitas.

As a pastor, I've had the intimate privilege to journey with parishioners and their families who decided to stop dialysis, suspend nutrition or withdraw artificial life-support systems. In every case, these decisions were made in faith, hope and love. They were, for me, quiet testimonies of human surrender and spirit, acts of integrity and trust. I've also witnessed long, exhausting, agonizing vigils when dying proceeds slowly, sometimes prolonged into months and years of meaningless, comatose existence.

I am thankful for the growing hospice network in this country and for all that its dedicated professionals and volunteers do to alleviate the distress, isolation and pain often associated with a terminal illness. I would never support a system that in any way pressured people to make the critical, personal decision to end their lives in the face of a terminal illness. I do, however, strongly question the morality of legally compelling someone to endure the pain and indignity of an extended terminal illness when they wish to make a different decision. And, yes, I am challenging the theology of those who insist that this in any way reflects the intentions of a loving God.

(snip)

We are in midst of a broad discussion about the effectiveness and economics of health care in the United States, where a disproportionate share of total health care costs are expended on elderly patients in the final months of their lives, often involving expensive facilities and treatment to prolong their lives, even as the patients are praying to die. I wonder what percentage of health care costs could be saved, with no decrease in quality of care and an increase in personal choice, if laws in the other 49 states were changed to legalize carefully regulated physician-assisted dying similar to Oregon's Death With Dignity Act?

This is a difficult, controversial topic, but it's time to talk about it more openly.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/52691192.html

The Rev. Trish Greeves has been pastor at several United Church of Christ churches in Minnesota, most recently Union Congregational in Elk River. She is contextual studies coordinator and instructor at United Theological Seminary in New Brighton.

[Grey]

1. My Grandmother was comatose for 13 years,

until the money ran out and only then was the family able to request the end of 'life support'.
Only when they could not suck any more money out of Grandpa would the 'care home' consider pulling the plug.
They would make him feel so evil, even when everyone could see she had no chance for any kind of life, he would come away crying.
I really hate these Bastards! What kind of life is that!

[question everything]

2. This is horrible. This is why a living will is so important

even though I've heard that sometimes hospitals try to by pass it.

[pipi_k]

6. Sometimes it's not the hospitals, but the doctors themselves

My MIL broke her hip for a second time in late 2004. Prior to that she had been on her own, seemingly doing well at 93.

When she got out of the hospital she came to live with us. That's when the trouble started. We made sure she was taking all her prescribed meds on time. For some reason, they induced a toxic state in her...we couldn't understand why she was going downhill so quickly, mentally. We had to put her in a nursing home for a month while we tried to figure out how to handle her here. During that time she did things we had NEVER seen her do before.

The day she went crazy at the nursing home and they had to call the state police to take her to the hospital was the worst. We got to the ER where Mom was stuck on a gurney in a crowded hallway. We were at the end of our ropes...We showed the doctor on duty her DNR and living will. He said she had renal failure and ordered hospice care for her. She was taken off all her meds and only given what meds she needed for whatever pain she might have. I believe that doctor did her a mercy. She did NOT want to be here any longer. Her husband of 60+ years had died in 1992. She missed him terribly.

anyway, this doctor was not even her own doctor. Her own doctor would NOT sign her over to hospice care even though she was 93...had broken a hip (and the usual prognosis for this is 6 months in the elderly)...was showing signs of dementia that disturbed her greatly. He refused to give us hospice care for her even though it was plain she could die within the six month window required in Mass for hospice care.

So we got hospice care and she came home. None of the family wanted to tell her because they were afraid it would upset her. She kept asking when she was going to be able to "get up from this hospital bed" that we had in the living room. I told one of the hospice nurses this, and she asked did we want her to talk with Mom...we agreed.

At the end of the nurse's visit, Mom was happier than I had seen her in a long time (being off her Rx meds cleared up the dementia, strangely enough)...she said, and I quote, "It was about TIME someone told me the truth!!!"

It almost seemed like she was very very tired and happy to finally be able to let go. But it took a while...From March 11, 2005..the day she came home for the last time, to April 20, 2005...the day she died...for her to feel that her kids (all over 60) would be OK without her.

Mr Pip and I held her hands the morning she died. It was peaceful.

She could finally rest.

But to this day I still hold a grudge against her own doctor, who kept prescribing her pills that made her crazy, and would not face the fact that she just did not want to be here.

[question everything]

7. I am so sorry for your loss. You obviously still feel it

Yes, we all have to have advocates when dealing with doctors and hospitals. The doctors are afraid of a malpractice suit - even, I suppose for a 93 year old.

This is why some say that a health care reform will have to include tort reform. I don't know. I think that the President alluded to it when he was talking about all the extra tests.

[pipi_k]

8. thank you...the pain isn't as acute anymore...but you know something...

I'm not sure what her regular doctor's problem was, to tell the truth. He needn't have feared a lawsuit from the family...we practically begged him to order hospice care for her.

We'd have signed a solemn promise not to bring a lawsuit against him. All he did was give her more and more medications which probably interacted with each other and made her crazy. All I know is that as soon as we stopped all her Rx meds, she became lucid again....strange...

[Mind_your_head]

3. Ewwww......

It doesn't surprise me ONE BIT that you posted this.....

Sorry that I kick this, even though I use the (not often used by me) *unrecommend* feature.

[question everything]

4. Not sure what you mean

Perhaps you are lucky enough to watch loved ones lingering in pain and misery waiting for the end. Or loved ones who are the shell of their former selves, have no idea who everyone is.

[question everything]

5. P.S. read the post upstream, #1 (nt)