tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170814845771372625.post8249485672229314641..comments2024-02-08T10:33:22.915+13:00Comments on Available Light: Giving Death a Helping HandKelvin Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682322819567886400noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170814845771372625.post-11089727692575878552016-02-18T13:25:59.411+13:002016-02-18T13:25:59.411+13:00I guess this is a case in point. Here is an unambi...I guess this is a case in point. Here is an unambiguous case, where, on the surface of it, the case for assisted death seems unarguable. But the problem is that this sort of case is not typical. Most are far more ambiguous than this, and no matter what system is set up, no matter how rigorously it is vetted and monitored, it will be open to abuse and exploitation. Yes it is a slippery slope. No matter where the boundary is set on this one there will always be the case just over the boundary, and the case just a little further over than that. And whoever is deciding on these will face, and be influenced by, interested parties who have varying abilities to buy advice and apply pressure. <br /><br />I used the parallel of arguments about capital punishment, above, but of course there is a huge difference. Probably no one reading my blog is ever going to wind up on death row. Certainly everyone reading my blog is going to die, and for most of us it's probably going to be a fairly long and drawn out process. Your example above is a bit personal for me too. Unlike many people I can make a reasonable guess at how I am going to die: by metastatic prostate cancer. That is most likely to manifest itself in metastetes growing in my bones, and the most common place for this to happen is the spine. Who knows? My words here may yet come back to haunt me. Kelvin Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682322819567886400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170814845771372625.post-78451953340990462822016-02-17T20:38:32.515+13:002016-02-17T20:38:32.515+13:00I understand and empathize with the wisdom and cau...I understand and empathize with the wisdom and cautions that are explicit in all you say, up until the very last paragraph of your post where I have some concerns about the statement .... "which can make almost every passage to death bearable - "every" is a relative term. Let me explain.<br /><br />A few years ago I read an article in the NZ Listener magazine about palliative care and the efficacy of pain killing drugs. Apparently there are, because of their genetic makeup a small number of people (less than one percent) who do not respond to any type or dosage of pain relief. The article was about new research into more efficient drugs.<br /><br />The writer of the Listener article wrote about a personal experience involving his sister. He came back to NZ to visit her in hospital. She had cancer of the spine. He arrived only knowing which ward, not the room number she was in. He only needed the ward number because when he got out to the lift he just followed the blood curdling primal screams to someone whose spine was being systematically broken as the cancer advanced. No drugs were effective. She took two weeks to die. I found this a harrowing and haunting story. I use this story to balance your words ... "and who face a very unpleasant time between now and death." 'Unpleasant' in this case is rather an understatement.<br /><br />Less than one percent who die like this is still about one in every two hundred - but when we are talking about the whole population of the planet, that is a considerable number of people.<br /><br />It is of great importance that voices such as yours should be heard regarding the institutionalising into the system practises of 'slippery slopes' that can be subverted by uncaring relatives or some future (or current) call by the state for efficiencies and cost cutting in hospitals, but these argument are predicated (wisely so) on the more negative aspects of human behaviour. But I think we also need to look at the positive side of the coin - our capacity for compassion and the needs and requests of the dying each of whom is always an individual before they are a percentage. We especially need to heed those requests from patients such as in my example who die without hope of relief from their suffering.<br /><br />I don't have an complete answer to this difficult debate except to say that absolute relief from overwhelming pain for all those in hospice care is the solution. Let's hope medical science develops such relief. Perhaps in the meantime we should be reluctant to advocate a 'one size fits all' solutions to fraught and complex situations. Perhaps patients whose DNA has made them resistant to all attempts at pain relief should be treated as special cases. Perhaps in the maelstrom of their pain and fear someone should ask them what THEY want to happen? <br />Alden Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06601028197387499096noreply@blogger.com