I just finished watching a Frontline documentary called "The Suicide Tourist" which followed a man that was diagnosed with ALS and was seeking assisted suicide in Switzerland. I found it very interesting and learned quite a bit. I was under the impression that a medication was administered to the person but it is actually poured in a glass and the person must drink it on their own. The only thing that the facilitator can do is to hold the glass if the person can not hold it on their own.
In the documentary it also said that there are three states in the U.S.A. that have physician assisted suicide programs. Is anyone familiar with any of these programs? Or perhaps has worked in one before?
I highly recommend watching this documentary. It is available on Netflix right now.
Hospice doesn't advocate assisted suicide, but often there are massive amounts of narcotic drugs in the homes of hospice patients. I have had a couple of patients ask me to help them die, to which I've firmly stated I can't, but let's look at your pain and find a way to fix it. But it's very interesting to me that in spite of the fact that they have the meds available, I've not had a patient actually use them to end his/her life. It seems to me that many people might say "I would kill myself", but few actually do it. Just worth noting, I think.
Hospice doesn't advocate assisted suicide, but often there are massive amounts of narcotic drugs in the homes of hospice patients. I have had a couple of patients ask me to help them die, to which I've firmly stated I can't, but let's look at your pain and find a way to fix it. But it's very interesting to me that in spite of the fact that they have the meds available, I've not had a patient actually use them to end his/her life. It seems to me that many people might say "I would kill myself", but few actually do it. Just worth noting, I think.
i believe many of these pts are reluctant to commit suicide through overdose, fearing unrequited suffering/vomiting/incompletion.
if they absolutely knew that they would 'just' go to sleep, then die...i do believe there would be more of these acts.
but as we know, random overdoses are not a guarantee to a peaceful death.
I mentioned earlier in this thread Roger Magnusson's book about euthanasia, He spoke about HIV/AIDS patients who , at around the time nominated, while well, a point beyond which the indignity of disease was too great (eg incontinence, being bed bound). Some who were not guaranteed euthansia/assistance to die commited suicide well beyond that point; many who were reassured that they would be allowed to die discovered, when they got to the point they previously identified as intolerable, that there were still things worth living for and chose to keep going. I was intrigued by the idea that, at least for some people, the option of wuthansia resulted in much later, often natural, deaths.
tencat
1,350 Posts
Hospice doesn't advocate assisted suicide, but often there are massive amounts of narcotic drugs in the homes of hospice patients. I have had a couple of patients ask me to help them die, to which I've firmly stated I can't, but let's look at your pain and find a way to fix it. But it's very interesting to me that in spite of the fact that they have the meds available, I've not had a patient actually use them to end his/her life. It seems to me that many people might say "I would kill myself", but few actually do it. Just worth noting, I think.