Do I have a right to die?

[Barcode]

I'm not talking about suffering in general, but the sort of suffering that might make a patient insist on ending their life immediately so as to end it. I understood from earlier posts that you deal with suffering patients on a regular basis. The question was specific. Ever find yourself in a situation where sustaining a particular patient's life would have been considered doing harm?

As far as refusing treatment... do you really feel better about patients slowly and painfully wasting away and/or starving to death than patients in that same situation that simply want to get it over with?

If patients have the right to refuse treatment, why not have the right to refuse living any longer?

You're asking specific questions in which if you go back, I actually answered them.

Do sustaining a patient's life do more harm than good?

Again, I primarily deal with cancer and a large portion of advance stages typically deal with pain (of course other issues are at play). Of course patients who take chemo months and months and months who are continually weak, and sick have the tendency to feel that they shouldn't live anymore. Or patients who are constantly sick, throwing up, memory loss and a host of other issues have the same feelings. I have found myself in the midst of these patients. It's sad, but what more could I do? Do I wish their suffering to end? Yes. Would I support them putting a gun to their head? Sure, if they wish to expedite the process of death, but it wont be me putting the gun to their head.

It sounds insensitive but I have to remain objective to bettpatients my patients, but do I feel better about a patient being alive but painfully wasting away is an odd question. Most physicians care about their patients. Of course I don't like seeing my patients suffer.

 

[Phunter87]

Roflmao. Sadomasochistic fetishism. We need more people like you in congress and the supreme court imagine the things that we could get done with that sentiment.

 

[Poisonshady313]

Again, I primarily deal with cancer and a large portion of advance stages typically deal with pain (of course other issues are at play). Of course patients who take chemo months and months and months who are continually weak, and sick have the tendency to feel that they shouldn't live anymore. Or patients who are constantly sick, throwing up, memory loss and a host of other issues have the same feelings. I have found myself in the midst of these patients. It's sad, but what more could I do? Do I wish their suffering to end? Yes. Would I support them putting a gun to their head? Sure, if they wish to expedite the process of death, but it wont be me putting the gun to their head.

Interesting. Does that mean that while you wouldn't inject a patient yourself, you would support providing a patient with a machine where the patient could themselves flip a switch to start the flow of lethal drugs? (I'm sorry if I sound like a one note song, but Kevorkian is really the only point of reference for this sort of thing. At least that I'm aware of, anyway.)

It sounds insensitive but I have to remain objective to bettpatients my patients, but do I feel better about a patient being alive but painfully wasting away is an odd question. Most physicians care about their patients. Of course I don't like seeing my patients suffer.

It sounds odd because you don't see it that way. Of course you don't like seeing your patients suffer... but given the choice of having them painfully waste away or giving them a merciful end to an unbearable existence (that they explicitly request), some would find it hard to suggest that the right thing to do is to let their request go unheeded and let them painfully waste away.

 

[waitasec]

there are not very many people who choose to take on the responsibility of taking a life, even though the end is inevitably painful...what separates the boys from the men are those who are.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I am pretty sure medical ethics or whatever isbconsidered professional and medically ethical covers the ramifications of Euthenasia.

I'm not sure I can make sense of this statement. What's your position?

I think most people don't realize here is that the position of each and every physician is complex when it comes to patient care and end-of-life. I have treated terminally ill patients for over 20 years and although I sympathize (sometimes overtly) with each and every one of my patients I too, have to remain objective. If I cried for each and every one of my patients regarding their suffering I couldn't effectively treat them. Of course I will do my best to sustain their life and increase the amount of care I can provide.

You don't have to be overly emotionally invested in a patient that you know is going to die, but addressing the suffering of the patient is a key part of medical care, isn't it?

But in australia, they do allow a person to choose to die if they want to. We have one old lady who wants to die and she has simply stopped eating and drinking. The family have the right to decide not to feed her, and they have instructed us not to feed her. So in some ways, it is there, but its without intervention that it occurs. So she'll die of 'natural causes'... but its not really natural causes. Its starvation in her case.

Which is rather awful, IMO. If we allow for the idea that people can choose to end their life, why not allow them to end it with as little pain and suffering as possible? Where's the value in forcing someone to go through days of starvation or dehydration before the death that you know is imminent anyhow?

Again, I primarily deal with cancer and a large portion of advance stages typically deal with pain (of course other issues are at play). Of course patients who take chemo months and months and months who are continually weak, and sick have the tendency to feel that they shouldn't live anymore. Or patients who are constantly sick, throwing up, memory loss and a host of other issues have the same feelings.

Which is why many places where euthanasia is legal require written declarations from the patient separated by several months, as well as a diagnosis from a physician (or often two physicians) attesting to the fact that the condition causing the suffering is indeed terminal.

I agree that there's a danger of people using euthanasia as a permanent solution to temporary problems, but this can be addressed through checks and balances in the system. I don't think it's a good reason to reject euthanasia altogether.