National Death by Lethal Prescription Legislation

[Derek_Plumber]

If a person is struggling through a long painful death, should they have a right to die like citizens do in Oregon and Washington State? Why isn't Death with Dignity protected with a national law?

 

[Derek_Plumber]

According to the Pew Research Center

An overwhelming majority of the public supports laws that give patients the right to decide whether they want to be kept alive through medical treatment. And fully 70% say there are circumstances when patients should be allowed to die, while just 22% believe that doctors and nurses should always do everything possible to save a patient.

But Americans make a distinction between allowing a terminally ill person to die and taking action to end someone's life. The public is deeply divided over legalizing physician-assisted suicide; 46% approve of laws permitting doctors to help patients to end their lives, while about as many are opposed (45%).

 

[auditor0007]

There are, I believe, two major issues that concern proponents of assissted suicide. Many from the religious right are against any type of suicide for any reason because if you commit suicide, it is said you cannot enter Heaven. Of course, I kind of doubt God was referring to the terminally ill who are in unbearable pain, but that is one issue.

The bigger issue with many people is that there is a fear that assisted suicide will become to easy, and that we could end of helping people end their lives who may not actually want to do so. Kids waiting on an inheritance might be happy to get rid of Mom who has been suffering some, but just keeps hanging on. If Mom isn't completely in her right mind, she might go along with it.

Despite those concerns, it seems that for those who are truly in pain and terminal, there could be enough safeguards to avoid such scenarios. I watched my wife die from leukemia. She went through some awful things to make the ten months she did, but she fought all the way to the end, or almost to the end. One week before she had to be ventilated for pneumonia, she told me she couldn't do it anymore. I knew that was the end. She had given it everything she could, but we all have our limits. I know when my time comes, if I have to go through what she did, I would want the option of calling it quits when I wanted to.

 

[KittenKoder]

The reason this has become an issue in the first place is because medical science is now capable of keeping people alive in more cases than it should. Now we are able to see the effects of an artificially prolonged life span, and people are also starting to care about suffering more since death is becoming a smaller issue.

 

[xotoxi]

Despite those concerns, it seems that for those who are truly in pain and terminal, there could be enough safeguards to avoid such scenarios. I watched my wife die from leukemia. She went through some awful things to make the ten months she did, but she fought all the way to the end, or almost to the end. One week before she had to be ventilated for pneumonia, she told me she couldn't do it anymore. I knew that was the end. She had given it everything she could, but we all have our limits. I know when my time comes, if I have to go through what she did, I would want the option of calling it quits when I wanted to.

I'm sorry about your wife. That must have been extremely difficult for you and your family. Did you consider hospice?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Give the Government the right to determine who should or should not be kept alive medically and you can forget about the slippery slope within a generation "assisted" will become mandatory to cut health care costs.

 

[KittenKoder]

Give the Government the right to determine who should or should not be kept alive medically and you can forget about the slippery slope within a generation "assisted" will become mandatory to cut health care costs.

Right now, the government has little say in it, and as long as it stays that way I see little problem with it. But yeah, give them an inch ...

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Give the Government the right to determine who should or should not be kept alive medically and you can forget about the slippery slope within a generation "assisted" will become mandatory to cut health care costs.

Right now, the government has little say in it, and as long as it stays that way I see little problem with it. But yeah, give them an inch ...

Any law that allows people to chose death is giving the Government the power. After that happens then the argument will become, since people do not want to suffer anymore, why should we waste money on THESE people and these procedures.

 

[Father Time]

Give the Government the right to determine who should or should not be kept alive medically and you can forget about the slippery slope within a generation "assisted" will become mandatory to cut health care costs.

Right now, the government has little say in it, and as long as it stays that way I see little problem with it. But yeah, give them an inch ...

Any law that allows people to chose death is giving the Government the power. After that happens then the argument will become, since people do not want to suffer anymore, why should we waste money on THESE people and these procedures.

Wait how is it giving government that power if the person has to consent to it?

Also the government unfortunately all ready has the power to end someone's life, with execution.

 

[auditor0007]

Despite those concerns, it seems that for those who are truly in pain and terminal, there could be enough safeguards to avoid such scenarios. I watched my wife die from leukemia. She went through some awful things to make the ten months she did, but she fought all the way to the end, or almost to the end. One week before she had to be ventilated for pneumonia, she told me she couldn't do it anymore. I knew that was the end. She had given it everything she could, but we all have our limits. I know when my time comes, if I have to go through what she did, I would want the option of calling it quits when I wanted to.

I'm sorry about your wife. That must have been extremely difficult for you and your family. Did you consider hospice?

Thanks. She started out with chemo but relapsed. The next step was a stem cell transplant with one of her sister's as a donor. She went through complete body radiation and had the stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, it seems the doctors over suppressed the new cells.

Stem cell transplants are only successful around 20 to 25 percent of the time. One of the biggest problems is suppressing graft vs host disease. What happens is the opposite of what happens when someone has an organ transplant. When a person has an organ transplant, the body's white cells attack the organ as they see it as something foreign to the body, which it is. So with organ transplants, they need to suppress the white cells so they do not destroy the new organ.

With a stem cell transplant, all the white cells are destroyed and then the donor cells are place in the body. There are no white cells to fight off the new cells, but because the new stem cells see everything as being foreign, they actually begin to attack the body. If left unsuppressed they will kill the host. So they need suppressants to allow the new cells time to adjust. Those new cells, at the same time, must destroy any old cells that the body tries to produce as it is trying to replace the lost cells due to the radiation. They have to find a perfect balance where the new cells don't kill the patient, but at the same time are not suppressed to the point that the body can reproduce it's own cells which will again be bad cells.

Anyway, that was the result. They over suppressed the new cells and she relapsed. After that it was all downhill. They were going to try again, but she was too weak and then she caught a cold which developed into pneumonia. She had no white cells at the time due to more chemo and she couldn't fight it off. Not even antibiotics could save her.

The good thing was that she did have some good moments through those last ten months, and she was at home until the last few days. There was no need for hospice. There were times when she was feeling decent. She also got to spend some extra time with the kids. But in the end it was just too much.

 

[auditor0007]

Give the Government the right to determine who should or should not be kept alive medically and you can forget about the slippery slope within a generation "assisted" will become mandatory to cut health care costs.

If health care costs are not controlled and continue to grow at the rate they have over the last thirty years, we will get to the point that most people won't be able to afford life extending treatments. The bottom line is cost and when we as a society call for a cut off.

We are spending twice as much for healthcare as we did thirty years ago. In another thirty years, we'll be spending twice as much as we spend now, at the current rate. If that happens, all bets are off, because the vast majority will no longer be able to afford any type of healthcare period.

 

[Care4all]

thank you for sharing Auditor....

And my answer is no.

And as far as being in pain, while dying, you can be drugged well enough to not feel the pain....with morphine, Oxycontin etc...

we are not talking extending lives...anybody as an adult can say NO, to any further treatments, and can let themselves die of their disease, naturally.

 

[Care4all]

besides the fact that this IS A STATE ISSUE and NOT the Federal government's.

 

[KittenKoder]

thank you for sharing Auditor....

And my answer is no.

And as far as being in pain, while dying, you can be drugged well enough to not feel the pain....with morphine, Oxycontin etc...

we are not talking extending lives...anybody as an adult can say NO, to any further treatments, and can let themselves die of their disease, naturally.

There is a problem, they can't stop all the pain, the brain will still produce pain "signals" in spite of those drugs, but when under their a strong enough influence it is almost impossible to tell someone when the pain is too intense. Also, pain isn't the only issue, would you enjoy being able to do nothing but lay in a bed, having a nurse changing your diaper, being fed by a tube, so drugged up that when the pain exceeds the drug capabilities you are unable to communicate that?

 

[Care4all]

thank you for sharing Auditor....

And my answer is no.

And as far as being in pain, while dying, you can be drugged well enough to not feel the pain....with morphine, Oxycontin etc...

we are not talking extending lives...anybody as an adult can say NO, to any further treatments, and can let themselves die of their disease, naturally.

There is a problem, they can't stop all the pain, the brain will still produce pain "signals" in spite of those drugs, but when under their a strong enough influence it is almost impossible to tell someone when the pain is too intense. Also, pain isn't the only issue, would you enjoy being able to do nothing but lay in a bed, having a nurse changing your diaper, being fed by a tube, so drugged up that when the pain exceeds the drug capabilities you are unable to communicate that?

if you are in the hospital, you can press a button and administer your own pain relief when needed, (this is how it was on a surgery I had to have, and i hit that morphine button as often as i could) and you can refuse being fed by a tube or have a living will to do such if you are incapacitated so that you can be left to die naturally and not be kept alive. It's a matter of days or a few weeks and you are dead anyway.

Being kept alive is a seperate issue from committing suicide because there is nothing they can do to keep you alive.

If you are to the point of dying, it is just a few weeks AT MOST before you die

 

[KittenKoder]

thank you for sharing Auditor....

And my answer is no.

And as far as being in pain, while dying, you can be drugged well enough to not feel the pain....with morphine, Oxycontin etc...

we are not talking extending lives...anybody as an adult can say NO, to any further treatments, and can let themselves die of their disease, naturally.

There is a problem, they can't stop all the pain, the brain will still produce pain "signals" in spite of those drugs, but when under their a strong enough influence it is almost impossible to tell someone when the pain is too intense. Also, pain isn't the only issue, would you enjoy being able to do nothing but lay in a bed, having a nurse changing your diaper, being fed by a tube, so drugged up that when the pain exceeds the drug capabilities you are unable to communicate that?

if you are in the hospital, you can press a button and administer your own pain relief when needed, (this is how it was on a surgery I had to have, and i hit that morphine button as often as i could) and you can refuse being fed by a tube or have a living will to do such if you are incapacitated so that you can be left to die naturally and not be kept alive. It's a matter of days or a few weeks and you are dead anyway.

Being kept alive is a seperate issue from committing suicide because there is nothing they can do to keep you alive.

If you are to the point of dying, it is just a few weeks AT MOST before you die

You missed the point that pain meds don't get rid of all pain, and often stop working after prolonged use. But when you are "doped" up enough, you are unable to communicate often, so even if the pain is intense you will not be able to let anyone know. I don't remember the name of that effect, but I guess I have known too many pain drug addicts. They will still hurt, really bad, but due to their addiction their mind will ignore that pain just so they don't get switched to a different drug. There are many other factors, pain meds for life just isn't a viable option.

 

[Derek_Plumber]

If you are to the point of dying, it is just a few weeks AT MOST before you die

I would like to see Care4all live through those few final weeks, then hear comments.

 

[Care4all]

There is a problem, they can't stop all the pain, the brain will still produce pain "signals" in spite of those drugs, but when under their a strong enough influence it is almost impossible to tell someone when the pain is too intense. Also, pain isn't the only issue, would you enjoy being able to do nothing but lay in a bed, having a nurse changing your diaper, being fed by a tube, so drugged up that when the pain exceeds the drug capabilities you are unable to communicate that?

if you are in the hospital, you can press a button and administer your own pain relief when needed, (this is how it was on a surgery I had to have, and i hit that morphine button as often as i could) and you can refuse being fed by a tube or have a living will to do such if you are incapacitated so that you can be left to die naturally and not be kept alive. It's a matter of days or a few weeks and you are dead anyway.

Being kept alive is a seperate issue from committing suicide because there is nothing they can do to keep you alive.

If you are to the point of dying, it is just a few weeks AT MOST before you die

You missed the point that pain meds don't get rid of all pain, and often stop working after prolonged use. But when you are "doped" up enough, you are unable to communicate often, so even if the pain is intense you will not be able to let anyone know. I don't remember the name of that effect, but I guess I have known too many pain drug addicts. They will still hurt, really bad, but due to their addiction their mind will ignore that pain just so they don't get switched to a different drug. There are many other factors, pain meds for life just isn't a viable option.

Pain meds for LIFE? what are you talking about Kitten? I thought this was about people who are dying...less than a couple of months to live, that want to commit suicide, instead of waiting out the 2 months with meds....

There is no LIFE period of taking pain killers, there is a couple of months before one dies....Doctors are required to give those dying, absolute pain relief or enough to make them comfortable.

We are not talking about someone having a doctor help them kill themselves because they have constant pain and just don't want to live with that pain and want to kill themselves via a doctor because of it?

Doctors take an OATH to do no harm, to kill NO ONE intentionally and personally, I don't EVER want to see that oath changed....giving Doctors permission to KILL another human being is unacceptable in my book....

If you want to OFF yourself, DO IT, but don't ask someone else to help kill you.....man up and do it yourself, don't make someone else, a killer.

care

 

[Derek_Plumber]

If you are to the point of dying, it is just a few weeks AT MOST before you die

I would like to see Care4all live through those few final weeks, then hear comments.

If you have not been through it, you shouldn't talk about it. What do you bet she's got a Bible on the shelf next to her computer?

 

[Cecilie1200]

If a person is struggling through a long painful death, should they have a right to die like citizens do in Oregon and Washington State? Why isn't Death with Dignity protected with a national law?

Um, because not everyone in the United States agrees with your position? Is this news to you?