assisted death

[Lynn49]

[Lynn49]

A woman's assisted death.....

[Shwa Girl]

imho, they won't tell , but it is something that already exist....they call it ''palliatives cares''....you* are old, you are sick, you are not usefull to the society (ito) , why spend care and money on you ????
so there are '' palliatives cares'' so, we** put you in a room with no food, no water( just a little blue sponge on a stick to humidify your mouth every now and then) and morphyne, ....depending on how strong your heart is....sooner or later, you die....that'S it ....
so you are fooled and so does you family and closed one....



* anyone
** medical staff

sorry.............i think i no longer trust drs and nurses

Health Canada's definition of palliative care

Palliative care

Palliative care is a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare for individuals and families who are living with a life threatening disease such as cancer, cardiovascular disease or AIDS. Regardless of the diagnosis or stage of illness, palliative care focuses on improving quality of life through the prevention and relief of physical, psychosocial and spiritual suffering, with treatment plans tailored to the needs of the patient and their family. Palliative care can involve: pain management; symptom management; social, psychological, emotional and spiritual support; and caregiver support.
Palliative care can be appropriate for people of all ages who are dealing with a life-threatening illness - from children to seniors approaching the end of life. Families may also benefit from palliative care when their loved one is dying, and after his or her death.
An interdisciplinary team of caregivers is typically responsible for providing palliative care. The team may include physicians, nurses, social workers, spiritual advisors, pharmacists, bereavement support workers, home care workers, trained volunteers, and informal caregivers such as family members, who work to meet the needs of the patient, family and loved ones.

[Shwa Girl]

What if you were experiencing constant pain that could not be relived by drugs, and the effects of the drugs themselves? Would you still want to stick around? What if you had dementia and could not communicate with anyone and only lived to terrorize your aides? Would you still want that?

They are doing so much better with relief for constant or debilitating pain therapy. They are not able to relieve all pain. They are getting there, through great research. Pain management is a complex multifactoral issue.

[Mia001]

Shwa, as i see in your post ''palliative care'' does not mean starving and thursting (sp) people to death....so why do they ?

sorry, i think there are things i didn't and probably will never accept about dad'S late days.....
and i'm mad at me for having been so blind about what was coming for mom, things went bad so quickly
Dr phone me everything was ok and less than hours , she call me back telling thing gone bad...it was sudden and unexpected.....she was already gone and the worst for me is ....i was not with her....

sorry again......

[redhdlois]

From the information I have heard, read, etc. it is the person's choice, not the Dr's

I am in the midst of preparing my will, POA, Executor and most importantly my Representation Agreement and Advance Care Directive.
I have pretty strong beliefs about (my) health care so I want it spelled out as clearly as possible.

Unfortunately these days I am finding that people's lives are being prolonged with medications, procedures, but their quality of life is extremely poor.
My GP even said that many of her elderly patients are done and just want to die.

I do not want to be kept alive by any artificial means if I wouldn't survive otherwise....including medications. For me, that works against 'nature'...if you catch my drift.
It's a complex issue, and should be a personal decision IMO....we'll see what happens.

[redhdlois]

What if you were experiencing constant pain that could not be relived by drugs, and the effects of the drugs themselves? Would you still want to stick around? What if you had dementia and could not communicate with anyone and only lived to terrorize your aides? Would you still want that?

From what I understand, they said people that are incapable of making a decision will not be able to request the right to die. But what if it was stated in their Advance Care Directive (if they made one)?? And also I heard that the person's symptoms also has to include "pain"..... which is crazy IMO.....what if you don't have pain, but are in a vegetative, etc state?
Why do I feel like I won't be able to make my own decision if/when I want to ?? LOL

[redhdlois]

agree
don't want them to murder me

and the supreme court deciding. no. they are not supreme. they made a mistake, i think.

and this is not new
back in history the greeks and roman empire killed those that were not useful and sacrificed babies too

we are repeating history

John Donne wrote a poem about a dying loved one, stating
Do not go gently into that good night [good night = death]
Rage. Rage. Against the dying of the light [dying of the light is the process of death]

It's your decision, not the Dr's......

[Arvilish]

From what I understand, they said people that are incapable of making a decision will not be able to request the right to die. But what if it was stated in their Advance Care Directive (if they made one)?? And also I heard that the person's symptoms also has to include "pain"..... which is crazy IMO.....what if you don't have pain, but are in a vegetative, etc state?
Why do I feel like I won't be able to make my own decision if/when I want to ?? LOL

It will base on either their prior request or other circumstances.

We never a freedom to make choice in life.

[Lynn49]

From what I understand, they said people that are incapable of making a decision will not be able to request the right to die. But what if it was stated in their Advance Care Directive (if they made one)?? And also I heard that the person's symptoms also has to include "pain"..... which is crazy IMO.....what if you don't have pain, but are in a vegetative, etc state?
Why do I feel like I won't be able to make my own decision if/when I want to ?? LOL

Like my Mother, my DH and I have stated in our late care directives that we don't want to be kept alive by artificial means; no feeding tubes, no ventilators if it means we're already at death's door and nothing else can be done. In my Mom's case, her alzeimers took her from us and nothing anyone could do would bring her back from the brink of death.

As for palliative care in the end of life, using my Mom's example again, when bodily functions begin shutting down, when food can no longer be digested, it's cruel to force-feed them, which would result in intense abominal pain and no way to evacuate the foods. Water is offered regularly until they no longer want it, so yes, in that way food and water are no longer given to them because their bodies no longer can tolerate them...they're dying. It's not a case of "shutting them in a room without food and water"! It's a case of natural death, and yes, it's not a pretty sight but it's not cruel.
Which brings me back to choices....the choice to end life before it becomes intolerable.

As for pain relief? Sometimes there is NO pain relief! My BFF died writhing in pain! Her morphine pump wasn't set high enough by some stupid doctor who was probably afraid of the new rulings that keep an eye on doctors who hand out pain relief to their patients! Was THAT a cruel death? Absolutely!
Would you put your pet dog or cat through that!? Absolutely not!
Yet we feel we can ask our loved ones to endure that...and why???

[Mia001]

Redhdlois, make sure your family and people around you know what is your end of life choices.....

your Will is open only after your death


my father told me few weeks before he died that he didn't want to die alone and when he was transfere to palliative cares i made sure he was never alone ( days and nights), DH and I share most of the part with mom and 2 of his sisters.....he died with mom and i on each side with his hands in our hands....and one of his sister at his feet.....that is the memory i have of his last breath

[Lynn49]

Mia, like Redheadlois, my DH and I have our wills in place, as well as a "Living Will" that directs our family members on what we do and do not want as far as medical interventions are concerned. This living will must be shown to family members, or as in our case, a copy left with a family member. We don't want to be kept alive by any artificial means beyond what would be necessary to bring us back to a good quality of life. Not death. We also have "Power of Attorney" for our health care decisions...our DD has been instructed to make all our health care decisions if we are eventually unable to make them ourselves.

In other words, our living will give instructions on what WE want done while we're alive, and our normal wills give instructions upon our deaths.

Everyone should have these papers drawn up no matter what their age.

[redhdlois]

Like my Mother, my DH and I have stated in our late care directives that we don't want to be kept alive by artificial means; no feeding tubes, no ventilators if it means we're already at death's door and nothing else can be done. In my Mom's case, her alzeimers took her from us and nothing anyone could do would bring her back from the brink of death.

As for palliative care in the end of life, using my Mom's example again, when bodily functions begin shutting down, when food can no longer be digested, it's cruel to force-feed them, which would result in intense abominal pain and no way to evacuate the foods. Water is offered regularly until they no longer want it, so yes, in that way food and water are no longer given to them because their bodies no longer can tolerate them...they're dying. It's not a case of "shutting them in a room without food and water"! It's a case of natural death, and yes, it's not a pretty sight but it's not cruel.
Which brings me back to choices....the choice to end life before it becomes intolerable.

As for pain relief? Sometimes there is NO pain relief! My BFF died writhing in pain! Her morphine pump wasn't set high enough by some stupid doctor who was probably afraid of the new rulings that keep an eye on doctors who hand out pain relief to their patients! Was THAT a cruel death? Absolutely!
Would you put your pet dog or cat through that!? Absolutely not!
Yet we feel we can ask our loved ones to endure that...and why???

People's organs begin to shut down as a natural dying process (same thing happened with my Dad)......so why do they want to force feed ?? SMH It seems like the medical community is all about trying to keep people alive but they forget that dying is part of the process also, so leave well enough alone !
ANd I'm so sorry about your BFF....this is an example of why I want my wishes stated and I don't want Dr's interfering.
I was thinking of that last night about pets...so true !

All I can say is, I hope everyone has their documents prepared. I am single with no children so it's even more important for me to have my doc's in place. I have already prepaid for my funeral arrangements, assigned an enduring POA, it's just the health stuff that is taking me a long time, and is the most important piece IMO.
I am attending a workshop next week on how to prepare my Advance Care Directive through the local health authority, so hopefully I can get it completed. I also attended a workshop on 'Dying with Dignity' recently and that was very informative.
There is a resource called NIDUS where you can register all your documents so they are accessible in case of emergency. Not sure if it's only for BC residents or Canada-wide, but I will be using that service.
A cousin & I talk about hopefully when we get to be at a point where we're "done" that there will be a little pill you can take and just go to sleep peacefully and without any kind of interference from Dr's, Gov't, etc LOL

[Lynn49]

People's organs begin to shut down as a natural dying process (same thing happened with my Dad)......so why do they want to force feed ?? SMH It seems like the medical community is all about trying to keep people alive but they forget that dying is part of the process also, so leave well enough alone !
ANd I'm so sorry about your BFF....this is an example of why I want my wishes stated and I don't want Dr's interfering.
I was thinking of that last night about pets...so true !

All I can say is, I hope everyone has their documents prepared. I am single with no children so it's even more important for me to have my doc's in place. I have already prepaid for my funeral arrangements, assigned an enduring POA, it's just the health stuff that is taking me a long time, and is the most important piece IMO.
I am attending a workshop next week on how to prepare my Advance Care Directive through the local health authority, so hopefully I can get it completed. I also attended a workshop on 'Dying with Dignity' recently and that was very informative.
There is a resource called NIDUS where you can register all your documents so they are accessible in case of emergency. Not sure if it's only for BC residents or Canada-wide, but I will be using that service.
A cousin & I talk about hopefully when we get to be at a point where we're "done" that there will be a little pill you can take and just go to sleep peacefully and without any kind of interference from Dr's, Gov't, etc LOL

I couldn't agree more...everything you said, Redheadlois...I hope for that little pill, too...did you see the videos I posted, particularly with that woman who passed away eating chocolate? Such a peaceful death compared to my Soul-Sister Friend...I still grieve for her and what that gentle soul had to endure.

You are so wise to prepare your will and have everything in place; it's something everyone should do. No one knows when their time may come...unfortunately...unless it's planned. That way no one has to die alone, but rather surrounded by loved ones....