Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
One could argue that you are doing harm, mental anguish type harm, to someone by forcing them to die a slow, painful and struggling death when a little bit of morphine could hasten the process and keep them peaceful simultaneously. The line between "keeping them comfortable" and killing them is very very fine. I think my mom was euthanized last year so that she didn't have to stay awake/alert while she was gasping for air in that last day. I think, without the morphine, she would have stayed alive another day but in a horribly anxious, desperate, gasping for air state instead of being sound asleep and not struggling. Hospice does this all the time, they simply do it quietly.
I truly hope I just fall over dead without any of the long drawn out suffering. It's torturous to the patient and the family to go through that. I felt like I was severely traumatized by watching my mom die a tiny bit more every day for a month. I hope that once my quality of life is gone, I go very quickly.
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This is always a really touchy situation. I completely agree that living in such conditions is unpleasant at the least. However, the physician is not causing the harm...the disease process is. We don't cause harm by making patients comfortable, but intentionally causing the death of a patient is completely against what the medical profession stands for. Hospice gives morphine to keep the patient comfortable...the consequences of which may cause death. If they are purposefully causing death, then they are breaking the law. They need to keep it quiet. What they are doing could jeopardize their nursing licenses.