PORTLAND, October 22, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A study shows that 17% of dying Oregon patients discuss euthanasia with their families though very few actually ask to be euthanized. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have published a study in the Journal of Clinical Ethics showing that fewer than expected patients opt to have their lives ended by the physicians.
Susan Tolle, M.D., director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at OHSU said, “One of the most surprising statistics this study generated was that approximately 17 percent of dying Oregonians consider PAS seriously enough to talk with their family about it.” However, only 1 in a thousand use a doctor’s prescription of lethal drugs to end their lives.
Direct euthanasia or indirect physician assisted suicide is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland but is widely practiced covertly in many jurisdictions and is being considered for legalization in the UK’s House of Lords. In those jurisdictions where it is legal, it is becoming clear that it is often not the patients who ask for euthanasia, but their families. A hospice nurse in Guernsey, another jurisdiction considering legalizing PAS, said last week, “More often than not it’s the relatives who ask.” Guernsey’s Les Bourgs Hospice director of nursing Ann Martin, said, “I can appreciate why they ask because they do not want to see someone who they think is suffering.”
Martin spoke for the Hospice saying that the focus should be on providing palliative care. “We believe that in the majority of cases good palliative care should negate the need for euthanasia,’ said Mrs. Martin. ‘Even in those patients who have symptoms that are difficult to control, it is possible to make these manageable so that they can cope.’ Tolle said that the OHSU study shows attitudes towards PAS have not changed since the practice was legalized in Oregon in 1997. “According to this study, patients more likely to personally consider PAS are younger, white, not very religious and battling cancer,” she said. Linda Ganzini, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and medicine at OHSU said that some patients who initially want PAS change their minds when proper palliative care is provided.
Coverage from OnlyPunjab.com https://www.onlypunjab.com/real/fullstory-newsID-9230.html ph