Dutch doctors can sedate ‘agitated’ patients before euthanasia

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That is one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read and it makes me feel sick to my stomach.
 
Slipping someone a Mickey Finn so that you can kill them easier does not sound like good medical practice to me, nor does putting down humans as if they were dogs or cats.
 
I hate to say it, but since I started being a nurse a few decades ago, I’ve come across more and more families who want to withhold food and water from their loved ones or who want to sedate them to the point they can’t eat.

Amd I don’t work in a state where euthanasia is legal.

Thankfully, when these cases come up, the family isn’t allowed to have their wishes followed. But we did have a family who set up round the clock visitors to block anybody brining the patient a food tray.

Until the social worker informed them that this was, indeed, elder abuse.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I hate to say it, but since I started being a nurse a few decades ago, I’ve come across more and more families who want to withhold food and water from their loved ones or who want to sedate them to the point they can’t eat.
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Reading this truly makes me want to cry. I am having incredible difficulty understanding how a person could voluntarily want to withhold food and water from someone they love.
 
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I don’t understand it, either, and luckily most of our staff is fairly conservative on the life issues.
 
That issue came up (“they wouldn’t want to live this way”), and the final ruling is we are not to withhold food from hungry people.
 
So sad!

People equate “They aren’t able to live their fully ideal life” with “They don’t want to live at all”

If someone is able to eat a food tray, them they are not fully unaware of their surroundings, even if they have no memory or understanding of them. We knew MAD was opening some slippery slope floodgates before it came into effect around the world.

I can’t believe I might have to add “Please don’t kill me” to my power of attorney forms when I fill them out at a later time.
 
I wonder if we have any commenters here from the euthanasia countries?
Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg, Canada, India, and South Korea, or the American states of NJ, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, California, Vermont, Montana?
I believe New Zealand just legalized it as well?
Signs of this slippery slope that any CAF-ers have seen in person?
 
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I hate to say it, but since I started being a nurse a few decades ago, I’ve come across more and more families who want to withhold food and water from their loved ones or who want to sedate them to the point they can’t eat.
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I’ve been called for ethics consults before where the family seemed genuinely disappointed that I wouldn’t tell them it was okay to starve their loved ones. Lord have mercy.
 
I suspect that at least in part it’s because most people don’t understand the dying process anymore.

In the old days, people died at home cared for by friends and family, and everybody knew what the end of life looked like.

Nowadays people think that it’s a quick and orderly process, like on TV, which can be hurried along if it starts to interfere with regular life.
 
Right.

“Being Mortal” is one of the best books I’ve ever read. The topic is dying & being with loved ones as they die. It gave me a new perspective on advancing alongside my parents and in laws towards the grave.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I don’t understand it, either, and luckily most of our staff is fairly conservative on the life issues.
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I went through this with an aunt. I would visit and feed her sips of fluid. She had dementia, was in her sixties and had a cold and I was told it was the family’s wish not to feed her.

You are lucky to be a facility that does not accept this. .
 
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I just experienced this with a friend who had a stroke. Her oldest daughter had healthcare power of attorney and brought her mother home from the hospital the day after her stroke. She told all of us that her mother was dying and hospice was assisting with home care.

I and another friend went to visit her, expecting to see a comatose person, however, she was awake, eyes open, moving in the bed and clearly aware of everything we said to her. She tried to speak and pointed toward her mouth like she wanted something to drink.

The daughter refused to give her anything to drink and only sponged her lips. According to the daughter her mother had stipulated no artificial hydration or nutrition if she was dying.

My friend was clearly NOT dying. She had many visitors and we all tried to talk with the daughter but she was too busy packing up her mother’s house to speak much with us.

It took my friend 12 days to die.
 
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