Caregivers Research Paper
CMOB English 191 Right To Die Allen, Jane E. “Before It's Too Late, Caregivers Should Know.” Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles Times, Sept. 29, 2003, p.F3 Frank discussions between caregivers and ill or dying patients not only can ease the patients' fear of becoming a burden, but can prevent eventual feelings of guilt in their loved ones. Yet increasingly, caregivers must make irrevocable, life-altering decisions on loved ones' behalf without knowing what they would have wanted. These decisions often focus on technical questions about whether to use respirators, attempt resuscitation, or try medical heroics when what really matters is the resulting "quality of life."As it turns out, that phrase can mean different things to caregivers and patients, even when they think they understand
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each other very well. A new survey of older patients and their caregivers found a gap between what each group considers an acceptable quality of life after those treatments. It found that both generally agreed that minor pain or mild memory loss would be tolerable and a coma intolerable.
But they frequently disagreed about treatments that could leave the patient in severe pain, confined to a bed or unable to recognize loved ones. Caregivers were more likely to say that serious physical limitations or severe memory loss would be acceptable after effects. Unfortunately, when caregivers ultimately are called upon to make such decisions, there is usually no way to know whether they are honoring or violating the patients’ desires. Inquirer, July 24, 2003, p.A2 A surprising number of terminally ill hospice patients choose to speed their deaths by refusing food and drink, a study in Oregon suggests. In fact, the survey of hospice nurses found that patients pick this means of ending life, which is legal everywhere in the United States, twice as often as physician-assisted suicide, which is legal only in Oregon. The study further found that these patients are not depressed and typically die tranquilly within two weeks. The patients said “they were ready to die,” their quality of life was poor or they were afraid it would become so, and they saw no point in going
on. They also wanted to die at home, where nearly all hospice care is given and “control the circumstances of their death,” the nurses reported. The Pew Research Center survey has data to encourage almost every viewpoint in right-to-die discussions, and that is good news. It shows that the public can make the kind of distinctions necessary for addressing this complex debate. The Pew researchers released their findings early last month as evidence of strong public support for the "right to die" certainly an accurate conclusion once one pierces the ambiguity of that phrase. For many people, “the right to die means the right to refuse medical means of staying alive if they are painful or burdensome,” or to have others make that decision in the event that the person becomes incompetent. For others, the “right to die means the right to take ones’ own life in extreme or hopeless circumstances” or to have others end ones’ life if one needs help doing it. It also shows that the pollsters had the knowledge and skill to design questions allowing for such distinctions.
each other very well. A new survey of older patients and their caregivers found a gap between what each group considers an acceptable quality of life after those treatments. It found that both generally agreed that minor pain or mild memory loss would be tolerable and a coma intolerable.
But they frequently disagreed about treatments that could leave the patient in severe pain, confined to a bed or unable to recognize loved ones. Caregivers were more likely to say that serious physical limitations or severe memory loss would be acceptable after effects. Unfortunately, when caregivers ultimately are called upon to make such decisions, there is usually no way to know whether they are honoring or violating the patients’ desires. Inquirer, July 24, 2003, p.A2 A surprising number of terminally ill hospice patients choose to speed their deaths by refusing food and drink, a study in Oregon suggests. In fact, the survey of hospice nurses found that patients pick this means of ending life, which is legal everywhere in the United States, twice as often as physician-assisted suicide, which is legal only in Oregon. The study further found that these patients are not depressed and typically die tranquilly within two weeks. The patients said “they were ready to die,” their quality of life was poor or they were afraid it would become so, and they saw no point in going
on. They also wanted to die at home, where nearly all hospice care is given and “control the circumstances of their death,” the nurses reported. The Pew Research Center survey has data to encourage almost every viewpoint in right-to-die discussions, and that is good news. It shows that the public can make the kind of distinctions necessary for addressing this complex debate. The Pew researchers released their findings early last month as evidence of strong public support for the "right to die" certainly an accurate conclusion once one pierces the ambiguity of that phrase. For many people, “the right to die means the right to refuse medical means of staying alive if they are painful or burdensome,” or to have others make that decision in the event that the person becomes incompetent. For others, the “right to die means the right to take ones’ own life in extreme or hopeless circumstances” or to have others end ones’ life if one needs help doing it. It also shows that the pollsters had the knowledge and skill to design questions allowing for such distinctions.