Media Coverage of Hastened Death Provokes Discussion

We hesitate to post articles on subjects variously covered as euthanasia, ‘physician-assisted suicide’, ‘hastened death’, ‘death with dignity’ and other related subjects. Besides the obvious controversy, it doesn’t really touch on our primary concerns as hospice professionals. At HFA, we are concerned about educating the public about the benefits of hospice care, and educating hospice providers in their mission to improve the quality of life of a patient with a terminal illness. Hospice care neither prolongs life nor hastens death. Hospice care offers pain relief and control, comfort and dignity to the dying. At HFA, we believe that good hospice and palliative care can prevent a desire to hasten death.

However, sometimes we make an exception to our hesitation to cover these issues and Christian Sinclair, MD, who writes for the palliative care blog, Pallimed, has given us a reason to do so. Sinclair posted an international review of recent ‘hastened death’ cases that we did want to share, because Sinclair sums up the significance of these cases to hospice and palliative care providers so well:

So why is this all important to palliative care?
Because guess who thinks about these things:

• your patients
• their families
• medical professionals who consult you
  
• the public

and they may never bring it up with you for a multitude of reasons. Or they may hint at hastened death, but never start an open discussion. Or they may make a sly joke about it, waiting to see how you respond. Or they may assume what is good standard palliative care is really euthanasia.

Good hospice and palliative care practices can help people discover hastened death does not have to be the easy way out. If the lines are too blurred between the legal and illegal our field has significant trust to lose with the public and our peers. Being educated and aware of the public debate over hastened death is a responsibility for palliative medicine to ensure the safe, ethical, and legal care of the patients and families entrusted to us.

He ends the post with his “standard disclaimer” - Pallimed, Dr. Sinclair and his current and former employers and states do not endorse or practice euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, but do encourage the open, non-judgmental discussion of these topics for educational and ethical discourse about this controversial area of medicine. Links do not represent endorsement – which makes a pretty good disclaimer for the Hospice and Caregiving blog, too.