Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Condemned without a last meal.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
If you want to die but are required to have a termanal illness first but don’t have one? Simply starve yourself nearly to death, and let the doctors take care of the rest!
“People with dementia haven’t been able to use MAID [“medical aid in dying”] because they don’t meet eligibility requirements including decisional capacity, the ability to give themselves life-ending medications, and having a terminal condition with six months or less to live.
“‘When they still have capacity, persons with dementia are not yet terminally ill with less than six months to live based solely on their dementia diagnosis. Conversely, by the time they are terminally ill, they no longer have capacity to elect MAID,’ the authors explained.
“That could change because of new laws and the use of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED), which can make a terminal condition worse yet pave the way for MAID approval.
“‘If combining VSED and MAID is now a possibility for patients with dementia, then clinicians need more guidance on whether and when to support patients seeking to take this path,’ authors said in a report published Feb. 5 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.”
And of course the Dutch are in on the death by starvation game.
“VSED is pushed here by groups like Compassion and Choices for the elderly. Now, in the Netherlands, younger people are to be granted help in starving themselves to death. From the Dutch News story:
“‘Doctors’ federation KNMG has scrapped the age limit for care for people who have chosen to end their lives by refusing to eat and drink.
“‘Some 700 people a year die by this method in the Netherlands. Under the new guideline, meant for doctors and other caregivers, people younger than 60 can now also apply for end of life care, for instance from a hospice.’
“Hospice, properly understood, provides palliative and other medical and social services to people who are terminally ill. But now, apparently Dutch hospices will do that for people who would not be dying but for starving and dehydrating themselves.
“In the usual Dutch manner, experts opine that rather than seek to prevent awful occurrences, it must be accommodated — the theory of harm reduction:
“‘De Graeff, who works as a doctor at the Demeter hospice, said space must be made for younger people wishing to die by refusing food and drink. “If a patient has made the considered choice to do this, we can all think what we like,” he said. “But if that is what they want then it is better to do it in an environment where they can be supported than on their own.”’”
Are you a caregiver for a cognitively impaired loved one? Their living will may require you to starve them to death, according to a bill introduced in Arizona.
“The language in this bill is way too imprecise to know exactly what it means by “health care treatment.” But it has a provision that could allow caregivers to refuse sustenance to a patient who willingly eats without fear of a lawsuit or criminal penalty — even if that is not what the authors of the bill intended:
“‘A health care provider who makes good faith health care decisions based on the provisions of an apparently genuine living will is immune from criminal and civil liability for those decisions to the same extent and under the same conditions as prescribed in section 36-3205.’
“Since the term “health care treatment” isn’t defined in the bill, a caregiver could claim a ‘good faith’ belief that an order directing the withholding of food orally came within the provisions of the law. So, we could see people starved who beg for food. (It’s happened before with feeding tubes.)”
TTFN.
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