Wednesday, December 13, 2017

If We would have Them End Their Lives in Dignity, this is not it

  If we want our seniors to exit life gracefully and in comfort, we surely should make better arrangements for them than what we have. We speak of allowing them to end their lives peacefully, but the system we have created in these past few decades carries them through a process that is anything but peaceful.
  I wonder if it would be wrong to use stronger language. I wonder if the way we treat our seniors is scandalous.
  We pare back on how often we operate on them, often deciding their bodies cannot endure such surgeries. We suggest that such surgeries might keep them alive, but their lives will only be lives lived in pain and discomfort. The quality of life is what is important, and at that point, they have no quality of life, we say.
   So, we seek to bring them peace. We seek to give them comfort. We offer them what we call palliative care -- comfort care. Do you know what that translates into?
   Opioids.
   If we are to give them comfort, we must take away their pain. That translates into stringing them out on drugs for the final years of their lives. Opioids can bring depression, psychosis, and even hallucinations. That certainly sounds like a peaceful way to have them end their lives, doesn't it?
  We speak of allowing them to end their lives in dignity. I do not know how ending your life addicted to drugs should be called dignity. I don't know how being depressed and psychotic is a way of ending your life with dignity. 
  Yes, I do think it a little bit scandalous the way we have come to treat our seniors across these past few decades. In the name of giving them comfort, we put them through the worst years of their lives. We would do them better by trying to cure more of their health problems, instead of placing them into "comfort" care.
   Health is always the greatest happiness, and that doesn't change just because you get old. If we could enable more of them to live their final years in good health, that would be wonderful. And, when we cannot bring them health, we should not be so quick to administer opioids.
   I suggest we should rethink the path we have created for those approaching death. A path littered with opioids, addiction, depression, psychosis, and hallucinations is not a peaceful path.
  If we would have them end their lives in dignity, this is not it.

(Note: One sentence added on 12/14/17.)

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