Everyone Deserves To Die With Dignity By Anita Freeman Analysis

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

.“As medical technology continues to advance and health care choices become more complicated, the preservation of end-of-life autonomy is an increasingly important issue faced by various client populations.” (Galambos, 1998).

As the president of the British Medical Association and a professor of palliative medicine, Finley suggests that assisted dying as a personal choice has unacceptable social consequences, and defends the laws in place. She further implicates that dying patients struggle with depression depriving them of the ability to make a utilitarian decision about their own death. I question her objectivity on the matter because I feel as a palliative care physician she will naturally defend hospice care for the dying. Because I disagree with some of what she is saying she will represent my opposition: people who overlook that depriving patients of this very personal decision is in itself a violation of ethics. I will use her points to illustrate that true compassion does not end with relieving suffering and comfort care until natural death occurs.

Kara Tippets, a thirty-eight year old married Christian woman with four children suffered from metastatic breast cancer. Tippets strongly did not believe in assisted dying for many reasons. She slowly started accepting her condition over time and knew that her day of death was coming soon. Since her husband was a pastor, they strongly believed in the Christian way to fully live their lives to the best of their abilities. However, a twenty- nine year old woman named Brittany Maynard did not believe in assisted dying. She was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and decided to end her life before the tumor progressed and before her suffering worsened. Maynard strongly believed in the phrase “death with dignity” and was forced to move to Oregon from California to make physician-assisted dying legal. Only five states made physician-dying legal and California did not make it legal until after Maynard had passed away. Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and California were the other four states that made the procedure legal to any individual. Brittany Maynard had chosen to inject herself with lethal prescription with the assistance of a physician on November 1, 2014 to take her life away, but Kara Tippetts did not agree with her decision.

Since 1993, Compassion in Dying, which is a nonprofit charitable organization, has provided information, consultation, and emotional support to patients that were terminally ill and wanted to consider assisted dying by self-administration of medication as one of their end of life options. The team for this organization includes nurses, psychologists, physicians, and clergy as was as laypeople from the community who help patients, their families, and their physicians examine the choices available to achieve peaceful and humane deaths (Lee). To be eligible to use this Act a person must be a resident of Oregon, 18 years or older, capable of making and communication health care decisions for him or herself, mentally competent, and diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months. This article uses data from the files of Compassion in Dying, and they describe 34 individuals who approached Compassion wanting to use the Death with Dignity Act and who died during the first year of the Act’s implantation. A downfall to this Act that has caused some problems is delays in processing a

Suffering at the end of life stems from multiple sources, including unyielding pain, depression, loss of personal identity, loss of control and dignity, fear of death, and/or fear of being a burden on others (AAHPM, 2007). The overwhelming symptoms lead many terminally ill patients to ask their doctors to help them die (Gorman, 2015). According to Dr. R. Sean Morrison, professor of geriatrics and palliative care medicine at Mt. Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, “their choice shouldn’t be an assisted death or living with intractable suffering” (as cited in Gorman, 2015). The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) (2007) strongly recommends that medical practitioners

In almost every case of a terminal disease, pain is intolerable and seeing someone in such agony is heartbreaking. For example, Brittany Maynard, a 29 year old brain cancer patient who had to move to Oregon so she can avail of the Death with Dignity act. “Maynard knew that her form of brain cancer would be excruciating. She would endure swelling of the brain that would very likely cause seizures, painful headaches and the gradual loss of bodily function. Doctors know that for about 5 percent of the population, no amount of morphine can block the agonizing pain the terminally ill endure” (EDITORIAL: Dying with dignity). Palliative care can often be provided for the dying patients and alleviating pain to provide comfort for the dying has always been the priority. “Palliative care focuses on relieving the symptoms, particularly the pain, of incurable illness.” (Palliative Care) But, in relieving pain through the prescribed medications there are also side effects that are caused by the prescribed pain suppressors and two examples will be lethargy and it compromises breathing. In most cases the effectivity of the pain medication may no longer alleviate the pain. If a patient will be in such agony for the remaining days or weeks the quality of life is no longer present. The agony of pain prevents a patient from performing even just the bodily functions.

In one of the articles I was provide with, “A Crime of Compassion,” describes the quality of life of a patient. The patient’s name was Mac and was under the care of, the author of the article, Barbara Huttman. Huttman describes Mac as “young, witty, macho cop … looking as if could protect the entire state” (Huttman 816). That he only went to the hospital for a cough he couldn’t get rid of. Only to later find out that he had lung cancer and was admitted to the hospital for months. Huttman states “Six months isn’t such a long time in the whole scheme of things, but it was long enough to see him lose his wit, his macho, his hair, his bowel and bladder control, his sense of taste and smell, and his ability to do the slightest thing for himself” (Huttman 816). Throughout the article I read that Mac was resuscitated fifty-two times (Huttman 815). His day to day life consisted of drooling, bedsores that covered his hips, fluids in his lungs, feces that burned his skin like lye, liquid food through a tube attached to his stomach, having to be changed every two hours, and bone to bone pain. Mac would beg her to let him go, but she legally couldn’t. She asked the doctor to call for a no-code so that they wouldn’t resuscitate him anymore. The doctor refused because he was a firm believer of prolonging

Physician assisted death is an option available to all terminally ill residents in, California, Colorado, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia; and there are many reasons why the remaining forty-five states in the United Sates need to make this an option as well. One of the major arguments between supporters for the legalization of PAD and its opponents is, palliative care. Ball notes organizations such as the AMA, who is the largest medical professional association in the world, believe that a physician’s duty is to provide terminally ill patients with support, counseling and hospice care until that patient’s death, not assist them in dying (37). Although palliative care does help terminally ill patients manage their pain, it

For many years, medical assisted death has been disagreed upon with the Canadian Quebec legislation, Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care. Terminal ill patients have been fighting rights with their incurable conditions which caused them unbearable suffering. In many situations, death is always unacceptable since life was given for a reason. We all must pass away one day, although for some individuals, death can be measured by time due to tragic news that they have been informed about. In means of measuring time, we would all like to know when and how our death would be given. “Living is not good, but living is well. The wise man, therefore, lives as well as he should, not as long as he can...He will always think of life in terms of quality not quantity…Dying early or late is of no relevance, dying well or ill is…life is not to be bought at any cost. – The Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 B.C.- 69 A.D).” (Shneidman, 2001, p. 5). Sue Rodriguez, who was an advocate for medical assisted death, fought for legal rights in 1993. She was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1991. In a video to the Parliament, she poured her heart out. “If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?” (CBC Radio-Canada, 1993). She lost the battle against Supreme Court Canada to legalize assisted death under the Criminal Code of Canada. In 1994, Rodriguez was given a “constitutional exemption” which allowed assisted death under many conditions. In

Yes I do agree with Brittany Maynard's decision to do the “Death with dignity”. The reason that I believe this that she had this terminal illness which was slowly just eating away at her even though she tried her best. She got some of her temporal lobe cut out which I believe is really brave as doing that could change other things. But she did try to live but the tumor reappeared, and they told her she only had a certain amount of time to live. She even looked at other treatment options but there were none that would get rid of it, and wouldn’t allow her to live her moments being happy. She was willing to go through the difficulties of moving somewhere else, and doing everything needed for the option of dying with dignity. She choose to do

These are the people who would be claiming the right ad therefore stand to benefit the most from PAS/D becoming a human right. Patients who would use PAS/D do not see it as cowardly or sad or any other way people who do not understand their suffering may view PAS/D – they hold much more positive outlooks on the subject. The patients who wish to use PAS/D seeing the practice as a good in the world is essential as they are the ones who would be claiming the right. One of the main benefits for dying patients is that PAS/D gives them back a sense of control. It seems – through various studies – that a lack of control is one of the main concerns in patients who are dying as a result of some sort of illness or disorder. In a study done in 2006, one patient explains, “I want to be in control as long as I can, I don’t want doctors and nurses controlling me (…) I’m on morphine, I get a lot of breakthrough pain, when I get to the point where I really cant cope with anything anymore, where my quality of life is totally gone, I will tell my husband I want a really good day with the kids which is when he’ll know that when I go to bed that night I won’t wake up in the morning.” (Chapple, Mcpherson, & Herxheimer, 2006) From this it is clear that PAS/D would give patients like this the much-desired control over their lives and deaths, and bring about a sense of autonomy over their own personal being – a feeling that may have left them once their illness or disorder began taking a harder toll on their bodies. It would bring a sense of dignity and a feeling of being content when they decide that they can no longer cope with their

Thus sparks my attention as to what is palliative care and why do organizations like EPCC push it as an alternative to physician-assisted suicide? The thought of expensive doctor’s visits and round the clock nurse care, not even mentioning the hundreds and thousands of dollars on pain medications are some of the important issues of palliative care that is not told to the patient. Who knows what kind of motive lies behind those practicing facilities? (Hilliard)These motives range from protecting individual patients from untested drugs and untrained practitioners, to promoting patient autonomy and bodily integrity, to ensuring that medicine remains a viable, independent

Our society finds it difficult to talk about dying and euphemisms are the norm. It is typical for both doctors and patients to be hesitant to initiate a discussion on dying. Focus instead is often more often placed on interventions and actions for managing symptoms. This avoidance can leave patients and their families unprepared for the inevitable death. (Schapira, 2010) It also often results in requests for therapies which may be excessive, costly and even painful in the hopes for a cure. One study demonstrates that when patients are aware that they are terminally ill, the majority are able to reach a state of peacefulness and also exhibit lower levels of distress. (Ray, Block, Friedlander, Zhang, Maciejewski & Prigerson, 2006) It is also important that family members are willing to discuss end-of-life options with their loved ones. According to elderly patients, they are most often the ones who initiate these conversations with their

Most adults diagnosed with cancer undergo years of treatment in attempts to cure that cancer. However, sometimes these treatments may not work, or the cancer is found too late in a patient to be stopped, and a patient’s cancer can be determined terminal, which means that the cancer can not be cured and will lead to death. If cancer is determined terminal, end-of-life care can be administered patients to control lasting pains, including shortness of breath, nausea, and constipation. However, this treatment does not cure the cancer, and will not prevent death in a terminally ill cancer patient. In some cases, patients decide that receiving end-of-life treatment is not worth it if the treatment does not prevent death. Terminally ill cancer patients may also continue to experience unbearable suffering, despite end-of-life treatments, as it is not always effective. These factors may push some terminally ill cancer patients to request to be actively euthanized. Active euthanasia is the merciful ending of a patient’s life through a single act, such as an injection. Terminally ill cancer patients should have the right to determine if they are actively euthanized. However, only patients who consider their suffering unbearable should have the right to be euthanized.