'i'm Your Doctor And I'm Here To Kill You'

[StrawberryFields]

Mercy Killing

"It's a strange business I'm in. I do talk radio and I write. I know about a lot of things and read everything I can get my hands on. I talk to reporters and scientists and experts and citizens with stories to tell.

Most of the time, the subjects we discuss on my programs deal with problems and situations that affect other people. It isn't often that the subject applies to me or my family. That was the case. Not now.

A little over two weeks ago, I interviewed a man on my program whom I'd interviewed before. He had written "Forced Exit," a book about euthanasia, what we used to call "mercy killing."

Wesley Smith has a new book out now. It's called "The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America," published by Encounter Books. It's a chilling account of the hidden changes in medical care in this country and more importantly, the deliberate changes in the training of doctors, nurses, ethics personnel and other health-care workers.

Remember how most of us were concerned about the wonders of medical technology keeping us alive artificially, making us slaves to tubes and machines? Remember how we all were advised to have living wills which would designate what we didn't want done to us if we were in final and desperate straits? Remember all the money we paid to lawyers to draw up such documents and how when it was done, we felt safe.

Forget it. You are not safe.

You are more at risk than ever. Not from being kept alive longer than you desire but from having your life ended sooner than nature might dictate and in fact, sooner than you or your family want.

I won't mince words. What I'm saying is that you and your loved ones are now more in danger of having your life ended by doctors refusing medical care than in having it extended artificially.

In his book, Smith describes what is called the "Futile Care Theory." What it means in simple language is that doctors will refuse treatment, any treatment, if they decide that it's your time to die. It won't matter if the patient wants help. It won't matter if the family wants help. The answer will be "no." *85

When I interviewed Smith, I never dreamed that within days, I would experience exactly that situation. But I did. It is the most devastating experience you can imagine. It left me filled with raging emotions, unbelievable anger and frustration.

It left me with my father dead. He died just a few nights ago.

He was in the late stages of prostate cancer. We knew he would not survive that battle. He had decided long ago that he did not want radiation, chemotherapy or surgery. That was his decision. We treated the illness with hormones and herbs and it was controlled for several years. But it finally did spread, and we knew the end was coming.

One week ago, he was transferred to a larger hospital to have blood drained from his chest. He was conscious, rational, could eat and drink on his own and had minimal pain. His only medication was a blood pressure pill, a baby aspirin, a Tylenol if he had pain, and an IV drip with potassium. Hardly what you would expect of a "terminal" case. He was to be transferred back to his original hospital/convalescent care. That's when it all happened, so fast it made our heads spin.

The doctors decided on their own that we wanted only pain assistance so they discontinued all the medicines he was getting, including the IV drip. They never asked the family; it was an arbitrary decision. My poor mother, who was alone with Daddy, believed them when they said it was the "best" thing for him. They were doctors after all! Besides, she told me, she was afraid to question them for fear they might do something to hurt Daddy.

It was a weekend. When I found out what they had done, I demanded to have a doctor, only to be told he was not on call. They could only take Daddy to the emergency room if it were an emergency and it wasn't and they could not re-insert the IV without doctors' orders. (Catch 22!)

I implored the head nurse and was told that Daddy was going "through a process"! (A process?) Yes, I was told in all seriousness, my dad was "processing." That's the new way of saying that Daddy was dying.

The nurse also said that dehydrating Daddy would be good because it would force his body to produce endorphins to kill pain. I could not believe my ears!

After much discussion, I finally got him to have the doctor call me. He did but refused to reinsert the IV. They coerced my mother to agree to wait until Monday to see how Daddy was. They even told her the IV would do more harm.

Daddy ate and talked, right up to the end. He even ate two desserts with gusto. I talked to him a few hours earlier and he was his old self. Two days before, I'd asked him if he wanted to die and he said no.

You can live a couple of weeks without food but only about two days without water. The doctor removed the IV Friday night. Daddy was dead Sunday night. Two days.

The doctor expressed his regrets to my Mom and said he was sorry I was so upset. He said "that often happens with family members who just don't understand and get very emotional."

I don't know how he sleeps at night. I just can't wait to get his bill. I got more consolation from the vet when my dog died.

Be warned. This is not just my tragedy; this same fate awaits your family because that is what the medical system is teaching their people to do -- to us, their patients, under the guise of medicine. God help us.

Barbara Simpson, "The Babe in the Bunker" as she's known to her KSFO 560 radio talk-show audience in San Francisco, has a 20-year radio, television and newspaper career in the Bay Area and Los Angeles."

[Amillia]

I don't see anything wrong with what the doctors did. It was more ethical than what we experienced with my dad.

My father, was recoverying from a heart attack which damaged his heart. He had been resucitated three etimes in the abliance. He expressed that he didn't want to stay any longer ont he earth, that he had accomplished all that he had to do while in the hospital.

He hated the hospital and wanted to go home. They told him his heart had been damaged so severely that it was only a matter of a few weeks at best, before he would die, either from another heart attack or just slip away.

But the night before he was to de released...at 3am a nurse came into his room with a long needle. My mother was sitting next to his bed, she had felt she was to stay with him that night, and she watched as this nurse said that this would help him with his discomfort, and she put that needle into his lower abdomon.

He died just minutes later.

I think it had nothing to do with any of what you have spoken about above. I think there are millions of medical personal who think they can play god. And they have been doing it for centuries.

[StrawberryFields]

That is just awful! What was it in the syringe?

[Amillia]

There is no way of knowing what was in the syringe. Even if my mother had asked, they wouldn't have told her the truth. When I told my brother about it, (he is in medicine) he got really angry that I would "take the dignity away from dad's death by suggesting such a thing"...

They protect their own you know?

[Guest JRodan]

You do talk radio and you write?

[StrawberryFields]

Originally posted by Amillia@Apr 1 2005, 09:29 AM

There is no way of knowing what was in the syringe. Even if my mother had asked, they wouldn't have told her the truth. When I told my brother about it, (he is in medicine) he got really angry that I would "take the dignity away from dad's death by suggesting such a thing"...

They protect their own you know?

Oh, THAT I do Know!

[StrawberryFields]

Originally posted by JRodan@Apr 1 2005, 09:30 AM

You do talk radio and you write?

No Silly!

It was in "quotes" and it was done by

Barbara Simpson, "The Babe in the Bunker" as she's known to her KSFO 560 radio talk-show audience in San Francisco, has a 20-year radio, television and newspaper career in the Bay Area and Los Angeles."

see at the bottom of my post.

Thanks for the laugh though.

[USNationalist]

I see no problem with mercy killings. Like in the Case of terri Shivo. The plan- starve her to death. So then whats the end result? She dies. Alternitive plan, let her die quickly and peacefuly. End result... she dies.

Same end result. So under no reasonable circumstances could starving her to death be considerd moral when the end result of both options is the same. No amount of principle matters- all principle is anyway is pride. I believe in mercy killings. Its a curteosy we extend to animals when hunting and i dont think we should deny humans a mercy that we give animals.

[Amillia]

Originally posted by USNationalist@Apr 1 2005, 12:03 PM

I see no problem with mercy killings. Like in the Case of terri Shivo. The plan- starve her to death. So then whats the end result? She dies. Alternitive plan, let her die quickly and peacefuly. End result... she dies.

Same end result. So under no reasonable circumstances could starving her to death be considerd moral when the end result of both options is the same. No amount of principle matters- all principle is anyway is pride. I believe in mercy killings. Its a curteosy we extend to animals when hunting and i dont think we should deny humans a mercy that we give animals.

Wow! A voice of reason! Well stated USN!

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Originally posted by Amillia+Apr 1 2005, 11:12 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Amillia @ Apr 1 2005, 11:12 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--USNationalist@Apr 1 2005, 12:03 PM

I see no problem with mercy killings. Like in the Case of terri Shivo. The plan- starve her to death. So then whats the end result? She dies. Alternitive plan, let her die quickly and peacefuly. End result... she dies.

Same end result. So under no reasonable circumstances could starving her to death be considerd moral when the end result of both options is the same. No amount of principle matters- all principle is anyway is pride. I believe in mercy killings. Its a curteosy we extend to animals when hunting and i dont think we should deny humans a mercy that we give animals.

Wow! A voice of reason! Well stated USN!

But human beings aren't animals ...

http://www.theproudduck.blogspot.com/2005_...ck_archive.html

"As Terri Schiavo dies, I keep coming back to the phrase "death with dignity," which figured large in my law school con-law and biothics classes.

I've always been uneasy with the whole phrase "dying with dignity." By my calculation, there have been approximately six truly dignified deaths in the past two thousand years, and I may be overcounting. There's nothing particularly dignified about death, no matter how you try to pretty it up. Really, the things that we say make a "dignified" death are truly rather the last few moments of dignified life. You say a few noble last words, exhale, and then what's left of you starts to go bad immediately. In the modern world, you're likely to be immobilized and helpless flat on your back in a hospital or hospice bed, dependent for your comfort on the kindness of others. The addition or subtraction of a few more or less IVs and tubes hardly makes any difference to the indignity of it all. Even a heroic death on a battlefield is hardly better -- messy stuff tends to splatter everywhere and more likely than not you wind up facedown in mud. As an ocean lifeguard, I performed CPR on a man who had a sudden cardiac arrest on the beach. He was a man who for all I know had lived a wonderful life, but there he was clammy and crusted with sand and frothing with sputum as he died in front of a gawking crowd, with cursing lifeguards and paramedics slamming down on his chest. Nothing dignified about that at all, let me tell you.

Death sucks. It really takes faith (or a mature philosophy, which I believe draws its wisdom from divinity even if it does not acknowledge that Source) to afford the process any kind of dignity at all. Faith and philosophy are incidents of life, not death. Yet the slogan "death with dignity" seems to me to be too often marshaled to diminish those very things, and make man -- the only creature with a capacity for these things -- little more than an old sick cat to be put out of its misery."

[Outshined]

Nice blog, PD!

[USNationalist]

<<But human beings aren't animals ...>>

-right, we are better then them. So by what means do we extend a mercy to them that would we deny to ourselves?

I think the phrase death with dignity is supposed to be comparitive mr duck. Obviously dieing is a less dignified state then what most people are in when living.

But when you are talking specificaly about death then the only thing you compare it to is other deaths. I would say a painless death in ones sleep is more dignified then starving to death- which is littlerd with rashes, convolses and harsh coughing.

My point is- things are comparitive. While the point that no death is very dignified, which you make, could be true- some deaths can be more dignified then others. In the case of apples- it is best to compare them to other apples when makeing judgements about them.

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Originally posted by Outshined@Apr 1 2005, 01:15 PM

Nice blog, PD!

... if a bit light on the posting side.

Thanks. By the way, is anyone here familiar enough with html to explain to me how I can get my "Post a comment" tag to appear on the main page? I picked up an off-the-shelf comment code from some website or other which I've now forgotten, and I can only get the "Post a comment" tag to appear when you click on the link for the time of each post (i.e. "7:45 p.m" at the bottom of each post).

I figure some of my loyal readers (all ten or so per week, by the sitemeter count) might want to shower some praise on my brilliant intellect or tell me why I'm a total chunderhead.

[StrawberryFields]

Originally posted by USNationalist@Apr 1 2005, 12:03 PM

I see no problem with mercy killings. Like in the Case of terri Shivo. The plan- starve her to death. So then whats the end result? She dies. Alternitive plan, let her die quickly and peacefuly. End result... she dies.

I believe in mercy killings. Its a curteosy we extend to animals when hunting and i dont think we should deny humans a mercy that we give animals.

I think that a Mercy Killing might be in order if it is requested by the kill-ee. If someone other then the kill-ee is in charge of the request, then instead of mercy killing you have murder. It should also be humane like they do to a convicted rapist etc. Where is Dr. K when you need him?

The mercy killing to an animal can not be something as barbaric as starvation or you will be in trouble.

[Snow]

Originally posted by Amillia@Apr 1 2005, 07:29 AM

There is no way of knowing what was in the syringe. Even if my mother had asked, they wouldn't have told her the truth.

FALSE.

Your mother could request and get copies of the medical records. Or maybe you think they would have forged the medical records... and would that have been before or after they helped arranged the Kennedy assasinations?

Think about the absurdity of what you are saying.... that in plain sight someone murdered your father, your mother watched it but didn't think to ask about it and even if she did, the hospital wouldn't have told her.

rightttttt.

[Snow]

Originally posted by TheProudDuck@Apr 1 2005, 11:09 AM

I've always been uneasy with the whole phrase "dying with dignity." By my calculation, there have been approximately six truly dignified deaths in the past two thousand years, and I may be overcounting.

I dunno,

My grandfather spoke in Sacrament Meeting, sat down, died. Not a bad way to go.

[StrawberryFields]

Originally posted by Snow@Apr 1 2005, 06:55 PM

My grandfather spoke in Sacrament Meeting, sat down, died. Not a bad way to go.

Unless you were sitting in the chapel when it happened.

[Outshined]

Kind of like the old joke, "When I die, I want to go like my grandfather did; peacefully in his sleep. Not like his passengers, screaming in terror."

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Originally posted by Snow+Apr 1 2005, 05:55 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Snow @ Apr 1 2005, 05:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--TheProudDuck@Apr 1 2005, 11:09 AM

I've always been uneasy with the whole phrase "dying with dignity." By my calculation, there have been approximately six truly dignified deaths in the past two thousand years, and I may be overcounting.

I dunno,

My grandfather spoke in Sacrament Meeting, sat down, died. Not a bad way to go.

Okay, then, seven.

On the subject, there have been some speakers in my ward lately whose pulses I was strongly tempted to check halfway through their talks ....

[Amillia]

Originally posted by TheProudDuck+Apr 1 2005, 01:09 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (TheProudDuck @ Apr 1 2005, 01:09 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by -Amillia@Apr 1 2005, 11:12 AM

<!--QuoteBegin--USNationalist@Apr 1 2005, 12:03 PM

I see no problem with mercy killings. Like in the Case of terri Shivo. The plan- starve her to death. So then whats the end result? She dies. Alternitive plan, let her die quickly and peacefuly. End result... she dies.

Same end result. So under no reasonable circumstances could starving her to death be considerd moral when the end result of both options is the same. No amount of principle matters- all principle is anyway is pride. I believe in mercy killings. Its a curteosy we extend to animals when hunting and i dont think we should deny humans a mercy that we give animals.

Wow! A voice of reason! Well stated USN!

But human beings aren't animals ...

http://www.theproudduck.blogspot.com/2005_...ck_archive.html

"As Terri Schiavo dies, I keep coming back to the phrase "death with dignity," which figured large in my law school con-law and biothics classes.

I've always been uneasy with the whole phrase "dying with dignity." By my calculation, there have been approximately six truly dignified deaths in the past two thousand years, and I may be overcounting. There's nothing particularly dignified about death, no matter how you try to pretty it up. Really, the things that we say make a "dignified" death are truly rather the last few moments of dignified life. You say a few noble last words, exhale, and then what's left of you starts to go bad immediately. In the modern world, you're likely to be immobilized and helpless flat on your back in a hospital or hospice bed, dependent for your comfort on the kindness of others. The addition or subtraction of a few more or less IVs and tubes hardly makes any difference to the indignity of it all. Even a heroic death on a battlefield is hardly better -- messy stuff tends to splatter everywhere and more likely than not you wind up facedown in mud. As an ocean lifeguard, I performed CPR on a man who had a sudden cardiac arrest on the beach. He was a man who for all I know had lived a wonderful life, but there he was clammy and crusted with sand and frothing with sputum as he died in front of a gawking crowd, with cursing lifeguards and paramedics slamming down on his chest. Nothing dignified about that at all, let me tell you.

Death sucks. It really takes faith (or a mature philosophy, which I believe draws its wisdom from divinity even if it does not acknowledge that Source) to afford the process any kind of dignity at all. Faith and philosophy are incidents of life, not death. Yet the slogan "death with dignity" seems to me to be too often marshaled to diminish those very things, and make man -- the only creature with a capacity for these things -- little more than an old sick cat to be put out of its misery."

Well there isn't really anything dignified about birth either. And we aren't animals, we are much more than animals so why should we be made to lay around like vegatables just so those who are around us won't feel guilty about sending us to the great beyond?

[Amillia]

Originally posted by Outshined@Apr 1 2005, 07:18 PM

Kind of like the old joke, "When I die, I want to go like my grandfather did; peacefully in his sleep. Not like his passengers, screaming in terror."

My kids repeat this quite often when riding in the car with me.

[Snow]

Originally posted by TheProudDuck+Apr 1 2005, 05:39 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (TheProudDuck @ Apr 1 2005, 05:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by -Snow@Apr 1 2005, 05:55 PM

<!--QuoteBegin--TheProudDuck@Apr 1 2005, 11:09 AM

I've always been uneasy with the whole phrase "dying with dignity." By my calculation, there have been approximately six truly dignified deaths in the past two thousand years, and I may be overcounting.

I dunno,

My grandfather spoke in Sacrament Meeting, sat down, died. Not a bad way to go.

Okay, then, seven.

On the subject, there have been some speakers in my ward lately whose pulses I was strongly tempted to check halfway through their talks ....

Okay - hold on there big fella. I'll do the jokes around here. If you have something funny worth saying, just PM and I'll run it up the flagpole.

[Amillia]

Originally posted by Snow+Apr 1 2005, 06:53 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Snow @ Apr 1 2005, 06:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Amillia@Apr 1 2005, 07:29 AM

There is no way of knowing what was in the syringe. Even if my mother had asked, they wouldn't have told her the truth.

FALSE.

Your mother could request and get copies of the medical records. Or maybe you think they would have forged the medical records... and would that have been before or after they helped arranged the Kennedy assasinations?

Think about the absurdity of what you are saying.... that in plain sight someone murdered your father, your mother watched it but didn't think to ask about it and even if she did, the hospital wouldn't have told her.

rightttttt.

ROFL! YOu think they actually record murders in the medical records? LOL get out of here!

Plain sight at 3 am ~ right! No one but my mother was there and she watched the nurse deliver the shot. How could she prove that it had anything to do with his death? They medical world would never have backed her up. Not even my brother, who had told us many horrendous stories of crap going on at hospitals ~ would back her up.

BUT IT HAPPENED JUST LIKE THAT!