Did you know that there are now 11 U.S. states, plus Washington, D.C., that have legalized the euphemistically named MAID, or medical aid in dying?[1] This is really physician-assisted suicide. The American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics describes physician-assisted suicide as the process where a physician provides “the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act.”[2]
At the beginning of February of this year, a couple, both 93, died together. They did not die in a car crash or at the end of a gun. They died quietly, holding hands. This sounds like an appealing “way to go.” If you died with your spouse, you would not experience grief or loneliness. You could live without burdening your family with your needs as you age. All these aspects put this approach to dying in a favorable light.
The goal of palliative care is to relieve symptoms—including pain and stress—at any stage in a serious illness. Palliative care can be provided in conjunction with curative or life-prolonging treatment.
The headlong rush to enhance, or even replace, human capabilities with artificial intelligence (AI) is having a rapidly growing impact on the medical profession. Developments in creating self-learning computers to diagnose and treat patients are showing stunning progress. There are even suggestions that they could make some medical professionals obsolete. At the same time, they have the potential to open a nightmarish situation where any sense of Personhood is nonexistent in caring for the...
The percentage of our population aged 65 and older was 16.5 percent in 2019, up from 4.1 percent in 1900. By 2050 it’s projected to be 22 percent. Sadly, how our society deals with older people is a travesty. Trend to Devalue Personhood of Elderly Thanks to a growing trend of viewing seniors as a burden and economic drain, the elderly are often: denied proper medical care; hunted down by organ harvesters; encouraged to kill themselves; or worst of all, killed without their consent. The quest...
Humankind was created from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7) and that’s what we’ll be after our death (Genesis 3:19). Now there’s a growing unbiblical movement to use human remains to supposedly fight climate change.
DO NOT Sign a DNR Order Before Reading This A DNR (do not resuscitate) order means that efforts to revive a person will not be made in the event of cardiac arrest (the moment a person’s heart stops and breathing becomes impaired). Be wary. A DNR order may be misused or wrongly interpreted. Once the decision has been made not to resuscitate a patient, there is the tendency to consider other treatments to be “futile,” resulting in the reduction of ordinary, beneficial care and treatment a...
Making end of life decisions is often overwhelming. So many emotions are involved; it’s hard to know what’s best for a loved one. Since palliative care and hospice are the two most frequently considered, it’s critical to know the difference. It’s important to note that services delivered by these providers do not always demonstrate a respect for the sanctity of human life or the Personhood of the individual. Palliative Care Palliative care is specialized medical care designed to provide relief...
Shortly before my beloved father died, I promised him that I would care for Mom at home just as I had cared for him. I hope that, by sharing my experiences as my mother’s caregiver, others will be encouraged to care and advocate for their own elderly or disabled loved ones. You’ll never regret the time and attention you lavish on them. Love demands no less. When I moved back to our family home to care for my elderly parents in March 2013, Mom could still walk unassisted around the house and...
Profit vs Expected Hospice Care Hospice is supposed to provide skilled and compassionate care for those suffering a terminal illness. It often falls far short of that goal, and now it’s getting worse. That’s because the field is increasingly being swallowed up by businesses more interested in profits than providing the kind of care we expect. Profit-driven private equity firms are “gobbling up hospice chains and getting in the business of dying,” explained a recent online article in HuffPost....