U.S. Study Finds Doctors May Be Euthanizing Dying Children at Parents’ Request

LifeSiteNews.com -- Your Life, Family, and Culture Outpost ^ | Wednesday March 31, 2010 | By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

[topher]

Wednesday March 31, 2010

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U.S. Study Finds Doctors May Be Euthanizing Dying Children at Parents’ Request

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

BOSTON, March 31, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study published in the March edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine suggests that a few physicians may have killed children who were very sick by giving them fatal morphine doses, after the parents had requested euthanasia.

Dr. Joanne Wolfe, a palliative pain specialist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital in Boston, interviewed 141 parents of children who died of cancer in order to explore the parents' motivation in considering and enquiring about hastening their child's death.

The study found that 19 of the 141 parents, or 13 percent, said they had considered asking about ending their child's life, and 13 parents reported having discussed intentionally ending their child's life. Parents of five children said they had explicitly asked a clinician for medications to end the child's life, and parents of three said it had been carried out with an overdose of morphine.

Dr. Wolfe wrote that the objective of the study was "to estimate the frequency of hastening death discussions, describe current parental endorsement of hastening death and intensive symptom management, and explore whether children's pain influences these views in a sample of parents whose child died of cancer."

"With two US states now allowing legalized physician-assisted suicide," continued Dr. Wolfe, "these discussions may become more frequent. Attitudes toward hastening death in noninfant children with life-threatening conditions have seldom been described."

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that he is seriously concerned by the finding of the study that medical professionals may have been willing to break the law and cause the death of a child in response to the request of parents.
 
"The fact is that if euthanasia of children were legal, such as it is in the Netherlands, there would be little to no protection for these children," Schadenberg said.
 
"Thankfully the actual number of children who were allegedly euthanized is small. The fact is that these children required excellent care, not death."

Dr. Wolfe observed that the child's experience of pain affects hastening death (HD) considerations by the parents, but many are not given adequate information about the legal options for pain relief, which can include sedating children into unconsciousness.

"Several studies indicate that both caregivers and physicians tend to confuse the unintended adverse effects of intensive symptom management with the intentional hastening of death. In our sample, the 3 families who reported intentionally hastening their child's death described doing so using morphine, which raises the question of whether they had misinterpreted the physicians' intentions. In fact, evidence indicates that opioids can be used safely at the end of life and that their effect on survival, if any, is negligible."

"Our results suggest that more than 1 of every 8 parents report considering HD during their child's illness, and they tended to do so if their child was in pain. In the context of an HD discussion, identifying sources of suffering and clearly explaining effective and legal options, including proportionately intensive symptom management, may ease parents' considerations of hastening their child's death," the report concluded.

The full text of the study, titled "Considerations About Hastening Death Among Parents of Children Who Die of Cancer" is available here.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10033103.html

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[topher]

Killing by morphine is basically done by stopping respirations.

With cancer patients, they may be in such pain that they request more and more morphine, which result in reduced respirations.

At some point, the patient stops breathing because of toxic morphine levels.

[utherdoul]

I hope I’m never in a position to even consider having that kind of conversation

[Yaelle]

This is a common thing in the elderly sick patients. They are struggling to breathe, in pain, and a doc gives the maximum dose of morphine, with all knowing that it might just slow / stop the limbic brain. Happens ALL the time. It’s not the worst thing in the world, and no one is killing deliberately.

In terms of parents and minors, it’s tricky. You have a terminally ill child, in lots of pain, and you want to let the child be without pain. At some point you come close to the “how much is too much” question, and we are speaking of children who have vastly differing metabolisms NOT perfectly related to weight.

This is not something to fight because I’d rather allow families to receive the pain relief the children need. I do not want morphine to be strictly regulated to the point where someone’s child dies in agony. Sorry. I’d rather have the child’s pain determine the dose. Especially if multiple doctors agree that there is little hope left.

[topher]

In the case of Nurses in a hospital [which I am studying], they are put in a position of yielding to the family [my father is in such great pain, can you give him more morphine, Please!] or being cautious about the dosage levels, and causing the patient to be in great pain.

I imagine this is a common dilemna in a hospice with cancer patients. The staff must monitor the vital signs, so when respirations drop below a certain point, and the patient is conscious and in a great deal of pain, the family might put pressure to keep administering more and more pain medication.

Some nurses have felt guilty about this, as they have felt they have killed the patient...

[topher]

They do have systems now, though, where the patient can "dose himself with pain medication" by pressing a button.

The family should neve push such a button if the patient is unconscious, and the healthcare facility must warn family not to do this.

Agreed that it is an imperfect world. Mercy killing is still killing.

The line that is a thin one is the one where the patient is on the border of death, and just one more dose of pain medication pushes the patient over the line.

But I believe the article is addressing the issue of a terminally ill child, and requesting that the child be killed outright.

One of the first John Wayne movies addresses this (the movie Stagecoach). At the end of the movie, John Carradine is about to "shoot a woman" so the Indians do not get her. Just as he is about to shoot her, there is the sound of a Calvary bugle.

The point being is that cancer can go into remission.

[Cathy]

I think it is very common is hospice, my FIL died from brain cancer and his last couple day were just a morphine induced coma and he finally passed. My friend just went through the same thing, it took her about 10 days to get to the morphine stage - kept her pain free and no seizures - after 2 days on solid morphine she passed.

There was NO reason for either of them to suffer, and neither staff or family at either Hospice inclined they wanted to “end it quickly” - but it was understood that the morphine would supress their breathing and they would just pass. Thank God they did and Thank God for the care they received.

Brain cancer sucks.

[RnMomof7]

As a nurse I have seen a high dosage of Morphine ordered with the intent of killing .

I and others have refused to administer it..

What this report will lead to is a call to legalize it because it is already common practice

[Yaelle]

Oh, of course I am not supporting murdering a child!

I just wouldn’t like pressure on the medical community to restrain from palliative pain relief just because some monsters might kill their ill children deliberately.

[Bobalu]

I would not let someone die in agony begging for more pain meds.

Give them all they desire.

[TexasFreeper2009]

No one should be forced to endure pain.

If the pain medication shortens their life by a few days then so be it.

[MamaB]

Not in every case. My late hubby had liver cancer which his, how can I say this nicely, nutty oncologist did not catch or did not even try to find out what was wrong. We took him to another dr. and this group did a simple Ct scan and found a tumor on his liver that was 5x5x5. He died about 2 months later. Our anniversary is coming up on Apr 5 and it is really getting to me for some reason this year. He died on 8 Jul 2006 just 2 years after my younger daughter had died. Some drs do not need to be in practice.

[MamaB]

So does liver cancer. I doubt if there are any “good cancers”. My hubby died just 2 months after being told he had this kind of cancer.

[rlmorel]

Anyone who works in medicine long enough knows the reality of it.

There are some patients who have suffered long and hard. Damned hard. Their suffering seems almost barbaric, and...they have had enough. In their heart, they know.

I recently had a friend, a young woman with terrible, terrible cancer who suffered horribly. Eventually, she said to one of her closest friends “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to. But I just can’t stay. I can’t stay anymore.”

She had fought long and courageously, and for her, she just couldn’t go on. She was a medical professional, loved and respected by everyone who knew her. I am not saying she succumbed in this fashion. I am describing her to illustrate the point that many suffering people come to. Some get there quickly. Some fight with an animal ferocity to live, but still get there. Some never get to that mindset.

Agh. Weeping as I write this.

But I have been in medicine long enough to know that giving people more morphine than is conducive to continued respiration is, in certain circumstances, an act of great compassion. It often happens without fanfare, with the full consent of all involved including the patient. They just cannot bear the pain any longer, their will to live simply reduced to a dry husk by the 24x7 struggle. The shell of desire to live sometimes remains, but when the patient looks inside, they see they have used all their resources and energy. They have nothing left to fight with, and it has always seemed to me to be a point in their lives when, they cannot deceive themselves any longer. They can deceive themselves about every other thing in their lives, their families, their friends, their dreams, their job, their aspirations and their accomplishments.

But there comes a time for many of them when they look inside, and that is one part of them that is bare, and they apparently cannot deceive themselves about it.

I have had people say to me variations on “Yes. I know where this is going. I know. But my family and friends haven’t got there yet, so I am going to be strong for them.”

I’ve met a good number of people who have made their peace when they get there and look into that empty shell. Not everyone, mind you. But many.

[rlmorel]

I am sorry for your loss. And you are correct. There ARE doctors who should NOT be practicing.

There is an old saying: “50% of the doctors graduate in the lower half of their class.”

[cookiedough]

That happened to my father. He was in horrific pain from cancer, and the doctors refused to increase his pain meds because it would depress his ability to breathe and he would die.

He was never given a choice.

He died anyway.

[rlmorel]

I would not blame anyone who couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. I understand.

[Cathy]

I’m so sorry. A similar thing happened to my uncle about 11 years ago, liver and pancreatic cancer that went undiagnosed.

[Cathy]

Mama, My FIL died in June 2006 and my MIL is just now fully realizing her loss. I’m probably not explaining this well - but she told me intellectually knows he is gone but emotionally she is just now feeling the full brunt. It’s been very emotional for her, and she is not an emotional person - so it’s been all that much harder to watch. My prayers are with you, you have lost so much but life is still to be lived. Peace Mama.

[MamaB]

Gosh, I know that better than most people. In a 38 months period of time, we lost my daughter, brother, hubby, bil, mother, and about 25 other cousins, aunts and uncles. God is still in control and He knows what He is doing when we do not have a clue as to what is going on or why. After some of the deaths, I told someone that I could have had the biggest pity party in the world but I am not a party person and it would only give me headaches. People on FR really helped after the deaths.

God has really blessed me by letting me meet a man who is very important to me. He lost his wife to cancer several years before my hubby died. We have so much in common-faith, values, are both nuts, etc. And he is a conservative!

I stay busy with my genealogy stuff and have really enjoyed doing that. I found a person who married into my family many years ago. I was looking for her ancestors and went back to about 410 and King Clovis, the Riparian of Cologne. I have no idea if there are any descendants living but I thought they might like to have this one day, if there are. Of course, there are so many errors in genealogy sites so I try to find sites which verify my info. Census data helps a lot. Since I have this data, they will have to do the verification. That is only fair!

[wagglebee]

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