“Comfort Care as Denial of Personhood” by William J. Peace

“Comfort Care as Denial of Personhood” by William J. Peace

It is 2 a.m. I am very sick. I am not sure how long I have been hospitalized. The last two or three days have been a blur, a parade of procedures and people. I had a bloody debridement for a severe, large, and grossly infected stage four wound — the first wound I have had since I was paralyzed in 1978. I know the next six months or longer are going to be exceedingly difficult. I will be bedbound for months, dependent upon others for the first time in my adult life.

As these thoughts are coursing through my mind, a physician I have never met and the registered nurse on duty appear at my door. As they put on their gowns I am weary but hopeful. Surely there is something that can be done to stop the vomiting. The physician examines me with the nurse’s help. Like many other hospitalists that have examined me, he is coldly efficient. At some point, he asks the nurse to get a new medication.

What transpired after the nurse exited the room has haunted me. Paralyzed me with fear. The hospitalist asked me if I understood the gravity of my condition. He grimly told me I would be bedbound for at least six months and most likely a year or more. That there was a good chance the wound would never heal. If this happened, I would never sit in my wheelchair. I would never be able to work again. Not close to done, he told me I was looking at a life of complete and utter dependence.

He went on to tell me I was on powerful antibiotics that could cause significant organ damage. He informed me I had the right to forego any medication, including the lifesaving antibiotics. If I chose not to continue with the current therapy, I could be made very comfortable. I would feel no pain or discomfort at all. Although not explicitly stated, the message was loud and clear. I can help you die peacefully.

Read the rest of the article here.

I have long been a strong proponent of appropriate euthanasia and the right to die. That people dying of incurable cancer are expected — are required by law! — to endure weeks of pointless pain and suffering, often against their will, when to deny euthanasia to a companion animal in similar straits is considered cruelty to animals, has always baffled me.

And, after watching my great-grandmother’s long decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s, I believe that I would prefer, should I someday receive a diagnosis of incurable progressive dementia, to end my life at a time and place of my own choosing (probably a forest) rather than put myself and my loved ones through a needlessly drawn-out pantomime of pointless “life” where my body would have to be locked away for “my” own protection (and that of others if, like many dementia patients, I become violent); I say my body would have to be locked away because, if it gets to that point, I will have ceased to exist.

After reading the above article, I have second thoughts on this issue for the first time.

I encourage everyone to read Mr. Peace’s article in its entirety, even — or maybe especially — if you yourself are not (yet?) disabled. I do still think that denying right-to-die in all cases will necessarily lead to inhumane and unconscionable torment for some individuals who might wish to avail themselves of that right. But it’s now clear to me that the possibility of people who might wish to fight until their last breath having <i>that</i> choice taken from them, explicitly or otherwise, is part of the equation that must be balanced.