Confusing End Of Life Issues Is No Help At All

This is a very confusing report – I’m not aware of anyone who opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia suggesting that palliative care and palliative sedation are “euthanasia.” If there are people who are making such charges, they are pretty ignorant of the issues they’re talking about.

End-of-life care: Pain control carries risk of being called a killer

Three decades after hospice emerged as the standard of care for terminally ill patients, the end-of-life treatments that palliative medicine physicians provide are frequently referred to as murder, euthanasia and killing.

More than half of hospice and palliative medicine physicians say patients, family members and even other health professionals have used those terms to describe care they recommended or implemented within the last five years, according to a nationwide survey of 663 palliative care doctors in the March Journal of Palliative Medicine. more

UK Hospices Oppose Falconer Commission Recommendations

Good for UK hospices opposing the recommendations of the Falconer Commission. This is especially important seeing that there is some evidence that some hospices are being infiltrated by the pro-deathers.

Hospice is against suicide law change

A hospice chief has said it is only a “small but vociferous minority” who are trying to drive changes to the law about helping people to die.

Mark Jackson, chief executive of St Richard’s hospice, said in his six years at the Wildwood Drive hospice no family had ever asked for their loved one to be helped to die. more

Rwanda Commits To Quality Palliative And Hospice Care

Good for Rwanda, leading the way in sub-Saharan Africa in developing good palliative and hospice care. This emphasis will serve as a powerful antidote to any pro0-deathers lurking in the country. 

Rwanda moving to provide “good deaths” for terminally ill

“Go home and die.” Until recently, that advice constituted the extent of end-of-life care that patients with incurable diseases could expect in Rwanda. As in much of the developing world, palliative care was virtually nonexistent in the tiny Africa nation, condemning those with terminal illnesses to meet their end in isolation and pain.

Now, however, the country has committed to provide all Rwandans living with incurable illnesses, as well as their families and caregivers, with high-quality, affordable palliative care services to meet their physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs by 2020 — one of the first such policies in sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world. more

Yes, The Pro-Deathers Are Infiltrating The Hospice Movement

The author of this piece is absolutely right - the pro-deathers are working very ahrd to infiltrate the good practices of the hospice movement.

Will California Legislation Promote Assisted Suicide?

In a recently online published book entitled: This-Thing-Called-Hospice author Ron Panzer presents compelling arguments that Hospice may be at least one of the vehicles being prepared to actively promote acceptance of assisted suicide. more

Palliative Care Should Have Nothing To Do With Medicalized Killing

This is a report of some very dangerous events in Aussie: The pro-deathers are trying to conscript the palliative care folks to become medicalized killers if ever Australia legalizes suicide. The pro-deathers are doing the same thing by infiltrating the hospice movement.

Euthanasia debate heats up

Like it or not, the debate about voluntary euthanasia has more to do with palliative care workers more than any other sector professional because, in the event that the law is changed, they will be the ones most involved in hastening a person’s death, a 'pro-choice' advocate said. more

Unfortunate Truth: Many Hospices Support Euthanasia

I have no way of verifying the claims made by the nurse in this story. However, if true, I would not be surprised. Hospice killing patients? Yes, unfortunately, it happens regularly. If you or a loved one considers hospice, ask many questions and be very careful to make sure they support life and not killing.

Catholic nurse recounts hospice horror, says doctor euthanized priest

Some will recall that March 31 was the sixth anniversary of the court-ordered murder of Terri Schiavo.

Terri's execution was, according to Ron Panzer, president of Hospice Patients Alliance, "accomplished at The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast." He notes that the hospice's CEO, Mary Labyak, "has been a member of the board of directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization as well as Partnership for Caring, a successor to the Euthanasia Society of America."

Panzer also notes that Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, a euthanasia advocate, was chairman of Suncoast's board when Terri was brought there for the purpose of killing her. more

Alarming Trend: Pro-Deathers Infiltrate Hospice Organizations

This has been happening for a while - the pro-deathers infiltrating hospice organizations to trojan-horse their obsession with killing.

Assisted Suicide Advocate Heads Up Palliative Care in Vermont

Medical Center proudly announced their new “Partners in Palliative and Home Care” practice staffed with Diana Barnard, MD and Will Porter, MD in the summer of 2009.

The August press release quoted Dr. Barnard, “For the people of our community, expanded access to coordinated high-quality palliative care can help facilitate greater personal autonomy and control over their care and treatment choices and bring a degree of humanity and sensitivity to illness-related emotional, psychological and spiritual issues that otherwise might get lost in the delivery of traditional medical treatment.”

Dr. Barnard is a strong advocate for assisted suicide, and has been for many years. more

Hospice Nurses, Yes, Euthanasia, NO!! Part 1

When I first saw the title of this YT movie, "Dying With Dignity" I assumed it was another pro-death hit-piece, but it's not. It's a cheer for hospice nurses and their work with the dying as part of the Marie Curie organization. This is what we need more of - compassion, professional care & support, and TRUE dignity in a natural death, not the ersatz "dignity" of being killed by your doctor.


Here's Part 1. Part 2 below.

Good For Slovenia: Palliative Care Trumps Euthanasia Every Time

Good for Slovenia!! This piece tells a very encouraging story. NOTE: A fabulous sentence where doctors insist that with good palliative care euthanasia will not be necessary. Spot on.

Preparing to die in Slovenia’s first hospice institution

For the first time in its 15 years of existence, the Žargi association will offer all-round care to nine dying and terminally ill patients in Ljubljana, with construction financed by the City of Ljubljana’s housing fund. more

An Informative Piece On End-Of-Life Decisions

Here’s a commonsensical piece about end of life decisions that balanced and informative.

Many shy away from planning their exit

One in five Americans still die using emergency services, with more than 14 percent of these deaths occurring among patients 85 years and older. Although death is our only exit strategy in life, few of us are preparing for it. Ask any person how they want to die and they will have a definitive response, “quick and painless.” Yet despite this authoritative choice, we remain shy when planning to achieve such an exit — which is why many of us will end up in an emergency room to die. more

Support Your Local Hospice

Hospices are places that help people live until they die. November is national Hospice Month, and I applaud all the good work that hospice does. If you’re looking for some very rewarding volunteer work, call you local hospice and volunteer to be a respite volunteer or to work in any other area of help they may need. We also need to be vigilant in preventing the pro-deathers from infiltrating hospices to make them places of killing rather than care.

November is national hospice month

At some point, many of us have had loved ones admitted into a health care facility, connected to all sorts of machines and hope we'll have the chance to say "good-bye" in some meaningful manner.

Considering there is no cure for the patient, what are the options?

Why not have a conversation before reaching that point about what the person wants for the end of their life. Dr. David McGrew, M.D., medical director at HPH Hospice provides a perspective on there being something to dying well.

"We as physicians and patients need to figure out better ways to deal with chronic and terminal illness treatments and have the end-of-life discussion," McGrew said. more

Hospice Fights Pediatric Nurse Whistleblower

I’m not quite sure what I think of this report of a pediatric hospice nurse accused of (and denying) overprescribing Nembutal for dying children, especially seeing that she was the whistleblower who noticed adult doses of the drug being prescribed for her young patients. It does, however, highlight the fine line between making someone comfortable while dying and actually killing them.

Fired pediatric hospice nurse fights to clear her name

. . . For 20 years, she was one of a handful of pediatric hospice nurses in the country -- caregivers who can withstand the torment of watching young lives fade. She was the only such nurse in Montgomery County. On call virtually every day, she slept with the phone beside her bed. Once, when her own daughter was sick, she hired a home health aide so she could care for someone else's sick child. "I didn't feel like a great mother, but I felt what I was doing was so important," Lark, now 52, said wistfully. "It was a calling."

On April 14, 2007, Lark was abruptly fired from Montgomery Hospice in Rockville. In a termination memo, her supervisors accused her, in essence, of being a bad nurse. Her skills were "frequently outside the acceptable and safe standards of nursing practice." She was asked for her keys and badge. Her computer was taken, and 14 minutes later, Lark was standing in the parking lot, staring with an uncomprehending gaze. more

Hospice Needs To Do A Better Job

Here’s a report that shows one reason why pro-deathers have ammunition for their cause: Hospice, at least in this report from Ireland, is not doing a good job of caring for some people who are terminally ill. We MUST do a better job.

Care for dying patients varies depending on type of disease

PATIENTS with dementia get the worst care when dying in hospital -- while standards are highest for cancer sufferers, a new report revealed yesterday.

The research uncovered for the first time that a 'hierarchy' -- based on a person's disease -- exists in the quality of treatment while dying in Irish hospitals.

The findings from the Irish Hospice Foundation emerged in the first audit of treatment provided to patients in their last week of life in 24 acute hospitals and 19 community facilities.

It revealed a sliding scale of care of the dying, depending on the illness -- with cancer at the top followed by patients who suffered a heart attack or stroke, or respiratory conditions like pneumonia or obstructive lung disease. more

The Honorable Alternative To Euthanasia

I posted this when it was published a few weeks ago. It came across my screen again today and I thought it was worth a repost. Here’s a doctor who specializes in palliative care (care/pain management of the terminally ill) who finds herself terminally ill. It’s an eloquent story of dignity, self-respect, and care.

Helping Patients Face Death, She Fought to Live

By the time she was 38, Dr. Desiree Pardi had become a leading practitioner in palliative care, one of the fastest-growing fields in medicine, counseling terminally ill patients on their choices.

She preached the gentle gospel of her profession, persuading patients to confront their illnesses and get their affairs in order and, above all, ensuring that their last weeks were not spent in unbearable pain. She was convinced that her own experience as a cancer survivor — the disease was first diagnosed when she was 31 — made her perfect for the job.

In 2008, while on vacation in Boston, she went to an emergency room with a fever. The next day, as the doctors began to understand the extent of her underlying cancer, “they asked me if I wanted palliative care to come and see me.” more

Take That, You Pro-Death Extremists!!!

So, my good friend and colleague Peter Saunders says it all ... take that pro-death extremists!!!

An Outstanding Riposte to the Pro-Death Crowd

These stories, especially in the UK, are few and far between. Read  carefully, because it tells that while death is inevitable, we can do much to control suffering and celebrate the goodness of living before we die:

Mum wanted to die, but convincing her to live gave us both a gift beyond measure...

As she lay in the hospice, ghostly pale and apparently slipping away before my eyes, my mother was adamant. 'I just want to die,' had become her repeated refrain.

She was 84, suffering from advanced breast cancer and didn't want chemotherapy. As far as she was concerned, the end could not come soon enough.

'I've had a good life,' she would say. 'But I don't want to be dependent. I don't want to be a burden to anyone.' more