When the doctor walks in the room, in that end-of-life moment, and sits the family down to tell them palliative care is the best option -- not curative care -- people listen.
That's the doctor speaking.
Death with dignity, he tells them. If quality of life cannot be maintained, let it go.
I am not so easily convinced. Oh, do not get me wrong. I do know there are times for palliative care. I do know there are times, all you can do is make it comfortable for them.
But, my thought is, why not do everything you can to make it comfortable for them while also not selling them on death? If they are going to want to die, let it be their own decision, not one that is pitched at them.
I do wonder about hospice, which requires the patient to renounce curative care, placing himself outside the safety net of curative care. Why would we ever do that to a person? Why not leave options open, for the patient's condition often changes even when the doctor is sure it won't. How often I have seen doctors misjudge.
Death should be an option, but it shouldn't need to be sold to us. The salesmen of death are sometimes the very people who should be saving us.
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