Physician assisted suicide is a controversial and currently illegal practice within most of the United States, excluding Oregon,Washington and Montana. Though it may not seem immediately important to you now, you never know when someone you love will be in a position in which this may apply. For me, it was my mother who had a massive stroke on Christmas day 2011 and my father who died of liver cancer in 2006.
Aside from being a child to paretnts of terminally ill patients, 6 of the 11 years I have been a nurse, I have worked for Hospice of Miami County assiting terminally ill patients on a daily basis. many people with a terminal illness become weak and start to degenerate. There comes a point in their life when, even with the maximum amount of pain killers and sedatives, the pain becomes too much for them to bare. Sadly at this point they are often to physically unwell to do anything about it themselves.
Why Would Anyone Consider -Assisted Suicide? Change slide) It’s a scenario I see all too often; a chronically ill man is suffering in pain and feels like he’s become a burden to his family; a lonely widow is suffering with a life-limiting illness and has no one to offer care and support to her. They’ve lost their independence and feel like they have no quality of life. We have made great strides in improving end-of-life care through palliative care and hospice programs, but sometimes it’s just not enough. The care we offer our elderly and chronically ill in America is still less than ideal.
An estimated 40-70% of patients die in pain, another 50-60% die feeling short-of-breath; 90% of nursing homes, where patients go to receive 24 hour nursing care, are gravely understaffed. Patients who remain at home with family providing care often feel like they are a burden on their caregivers, and they may well be. Medicare and state and federal Medicaid systems don’t cover the cost of hiring in-home care-giving support. The physical, psychological, emotional, financial, and social strain on caregivers is very real.
Chronic and life-limiting illness can also make a person feel like they have lost all control of their lives. The body isn’t doing what it should and there’s no way to stop it. Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) may feel like a way to regain some of that control. If they can’t control the illness, they can at least control how they die. Quality of life is the driving force behind patients seeking PAS. Loss of autonomy, or not being able to care for oneself and make ones own decisions, is reported in 100% of cases of PAS in Oregon.
Closely following are the loss of one’s dignity and the loss of being able to participate in enjoyable activities, both reported in 86% of PAS cases in Oregon. It goes without saying that physical suffering greatly diminishes quality of life as well. For those who are suffering in their final days of life, death can be a welcome event. They may feel that it will permanently relieve their suffering and alleviate the burden on their loved ones. Physician-assisted suicide may seem like the best option for them and their families.