I disagree completely.
And this comes from experience, and from a wife in the profession.
Hospitals, dealing with people in their final stages of disease go out of their way to ensure that they are as pain free as possible.
This statement makes it sound like the folks in the hospital are heartless animals.
And if you think people are not given increasing doses of morphine at the end, you are not paying attention.
That said, the law wouldnt pass in MA. While the legislature tends to be communist, we are still a pretty “church-going” state. And there is a large Catholic population.
I cannot see this passing.
I disagree completely.
And this comes from experience, and from a wife in the profession.
Hospitals, dealing with people in their final stages of disease go out of their way to ensure that they are as pain free as possible.
This statement makes it sound like the folks in the hospital are heartless animals.
And if you think people are not given increasing doses of morphine at the end, you are not paying attention.
Before my operation (liver transplant, and my own damned fault as a long term alcoholic - dry 2 years now) I used to volunteer on our local hospital’s terminal ward two days a week.
I don’t know about the American system, but Vermont Lt has it right.
Nurses and Doctors are human. They have empathy (mostly), though the job forces them to hide it well. If someone is in pain, they will get an extra dose of pain killers.
If someone really wants to die, I am in favor of allowing them to as peacefully as possible. After all, why would you refuse to extend the same mercy to a person as you would to a slowly and painfully dying dog?
Living or dying is the ultimate inalienable right, in my mind.
Medical staff walk a fine line - found that out the hard way as a medic in the Falklands. I don’t particularly like the idea of it being “mandated and approved” but I can see times when it would be a kindness.
Sometimes, it is.