Will Euthanasia ever be legal for humans?

[paigevz]

He has a pain patch. They also give him Xanax I guess to relax him. Nothing helps. The doctor told him that he should get a morphine drip, but he would onlybe allowed to have X amount of morphine a day and he would be in control of how pushing the button. But, his dad was worried that he would use too much of it up at once and be stuck for hours without anymore (this may have happened to him the last time he had it). His dad prefers controled dosage. I'll ask about upping it, but wouldn't there be a point that upping it may actually cause him to OD? He must weigh only 75 pounds now if even.

I had a morphine drip that I controlled (long story). It only lets you use so much at a time, and then you can click away, but it just won't give you more until enough time has passed. Then it works normally again. Seems to hold a whole heck of a lot, and of course the nurses will change it when it's out (sounds an alarm actually).

 

[AuntieM03]

I'm not a fan...my philosphy has always been support life, at all costs. That whole "rage against the dying of the light" thing.

I already told my wife she better not ever pull the plug, and we've decided to be crycogenically frozen together in the doggy style position.

Your posts have made my day (up until the Republican thing).

 

[Disney Doll]

He has a pain patch. They also give him Xanax I guess to relax him. Nothing helps. The doctor told him that he should get a morphine drip, but he would onlybe allowed to have X amount of morphine a day and he would be in control of how pushing the button. But, his dad was worried that he would use too much of it up at once and be stuck for hours without anymore (this may have happened to him the last time he had it). His dad prefers controled dosage. I'll ask about upping it, but wouldn't there be a point that upping it may actually cause him to OD? He must weigh only 75 pounds now if even.

Is he on inpatient hospice care while hospitalized? What the doctor is talking about is Patient Controlled Analgesia, which is different from Morphine for terminal care pain relief. Patient Controlled Analgesia is used post-operatively, not for patients who are terminally ill.

If he has a pain patch, you can ask for the dosage of it to be increased, to see if that holds him better. When my DMIL was dying, she couldn't articulate that she was having increased pain, but we could tell from her behavior that she was, and requested the doctor increase the dose of her pain patch from 25 to 50 mg. Once he did that, she was much more relaxed, but not overly sedated.

I feel for your DBF's Dad, Lora...it sounds like he is being terribly mismanaged.

And yes, there is a point at which upping it would cause him to overdose...not overdose exactly, but the drug would build up in his system faster than his system would be able to metabolize it. That is actually the point of using Morphine for terminal care pain relief, even though folks don't like to discuss it.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I hope not. I would never want to be put into the position to kill a person. Now I do believe in not heroics or feeding tube under certain conditions. And yes I have a living will that states that.

 

[LoraJ]

Ugh! I'm convinced his doctor just doesn't know what he is doing. In fact, I haven't even seen him in over a week. His dad seemed okay with the pain up until last night. Well, at least most of the time. But there seemed like there were times he would be immune to the morphine.

Odd thing is, when I went to the hospital this evening, I was going to talk to the nurse about what we could do to give him more pain meds. Turns out, he had told the nurse to leave him alone and that he didn't want anymore meds at all. She even wanted to change his bed sore bandages and he told her to go away. She told me he was lethargic all day.

When I came in, he wouldn't wake up. When my boyfriend arrived, he did wake up briefly but we couldn't understand what he was saying. He went back to sleep and we sat with him for a while. Then when we were leaving we said good night and he responded and said goodnight, smiled, and told us he loved us.

He actually seemed at peace, even without the meds. I'm assuming that the end is very near.

 

[escape]

He actually seemed at peace, even without the meds. I'm assuming that the end is very near.

 

[DISUNC]

Honestly I wouldn't want to do it! But having seen people dying in horrific pain, I can understand why people would do it!

My prayers are with you & your BF and his family!

 

[Buckalew11]

Hugs, Lora.

My dad has terminal cancer and I probably just should not have read this thread. Dad has signed all the papers to say not to keep him alive and at Christmas he sat us all down together to make sure we were clear on his wishes.

I think my dad would end his life himself as some posters have also said they would do but my mom has begged him not to do that (even though she'd probably take care of it herself if it was her suffering). She has taken guns out of the house but he has a garage, and a car... and he has pain pills that he is careful using and for all I know he may be stashing a few away for a later date. If he chose to take his own life I couldn't hold it against him. When you are facing death knowing that you'll probably go down hill slowly and suffer, well, that has got to be a hard future to face.

As horrible as sudden death is for the family, I really wish that before the true suffering begins his heart would stop.

I agree with mrsltg's posts though. I think she states things quite well. And I hope my dad, in the end, has someone like Disney Doll to care for him and knows how to help us see what is happening. Actually, my DH is a paramedic and I saw him handle his dad's death a few years ago. His dad, in the end, died just how Blondie said and DH was making sure of it.