Press Release - July 21, 2009
Hospice Foundation of America Sends Letter to The O'Reilly Factor Regarding Hospice, Advanced Directives, and Healthcare Reform
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2009
CONTACT:
press@hospicefoundation.org
Hospice Foundation of America sent this letter to Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor on FOX News Network in response to a segment that appeared Monday, July 20, 2009.
Mr. O’Reilly,
In yesterday’s segment on healthcare reform, your guest host Laura Ingraham addressed the requirement in the current healthcare bill that doctors periodically discuss advanced directives and end-of-life care options (including hospice care) with their patients. While doing so, she indirectly gave a startling and misleading characterization of hospice care: “Now I find that to be creepy, for the president of the United States to be saying basically, we hope more people—you old people, you get sick, you know, we encourage you to look at hospices… Go die. Go to a hospice and die.”
Hospice care is apolitical and Hospice Foundation of America is a nonpartisan public charity. Thus, we normally stay far away from political debates. However, Ms. Ingraham’s comments portraying hospice as merely a place to die and her suggestion that hospice advocates seek to shorten life are so wrong and so harmful that they must be addressed.
Hospice is not a place “to go to die” and those who support hospice do not wish death on the infirmed. As a philosophy of care, hospice seeks to add quality to the last weeks and months of life for those suffering from incurable illness. More than a third of Americans who die every year die in the care of hospice. The people who choose hospice do not choose to give up on life. Instead, they wish to spend their final moments at home with their loved ones, aided by doctors and nurses who specialize in pain management and supported by counselors and clergy who are experts in pastoral care. The decision to forego futile and oftentimes painful treatments to extend life by a few days or weeks is a deeply personal one and those who choose to do so deserve comfort and support, not scrutiny, as implied by Ms. Ingraham’s comments. We trust that, in a moment of intense debate, she misspoke, and hope she would welcome the chance to clarify her remarks. It should be noted that she lists a Washington, D.C. area hospice on her website as one of her favorite charities.
Regarding advanced directives, the proposed bill directs doctors to discuss advanced directives with their patients. Everyone, including those who are not ill, should have an advanced directive or healthcare proxy. Advanced directives are legal documents that state a person’s wishes regarding their care should they become incapacitated. They can call for a wide spectrum of action, from treatment that sustains life until the last possible moment to treatment that is meant only to ease pain. These documents prevent confusion at the end of life and make clear to doctors and family members a person’s wishes regarding various life-sustaining options. Advanced directives are different from do-not-resuscitate orders and the current bill contains no provision that instructs doctors to encourage their patients to forego any treatment. It only instructs them to make known the various treatment and care options. This is already standard procedure in operating rooms all across the country, even for the most standard of procedures. Physicians should, in fact, discuss end-of-life care options with their patients. With terminal patients, hospice should be a part of that discussion. Too often, doctors avoid any discussion of death with their patients. At Hospice Foundation of America, the most common complaint we hear from patients and families is that they wish they would have known about hospice sooner.
We respect the support that Ms. Ingraham has given to hospice in the past, yet viewers of your program should know the truth about hospice—that it is a compassionate service for those who have exhausted all curative options and wish to spend their final days at home instead of a hospital, where they can die as they lived, with dignity, respect, and the presence of those they love.
Amy Tucci
President & CEO
Hospice Foundation of America
Washington, DC
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