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Nurses will do it, too. My Mother worked in the palliative unit and shared stories about how the staff regularly collectively decided to inform the patient tha
by dleslie 5y ago
Nurses will do it, too.
My Mother worked in the palliative unit and shared stories about how the staff regularly collectively decided to inform the patient that the button to administer morphine was in their control, and that they controlled enough dosage to peacefully end a person's life and so to be careful with it. Patients routinely ended their lives. This would have been in the late 80s, in Canada.
Since then Canada has legalized medically assisted dying; and I wonder if the increased regulation has made it _more difficult_ for patients to access it. No longer can a ward of palliative nurses simply opt to inform patients of their ability to die, but now those patients need the approval of doctors to do so.
- INTPenis 5y agoYeah this account of mine has been kept separate from my true identity as well as I could, but I think I've observed this when my SO passed. They were also in palliative care from cancer. I'll never forget that last night, I slept next to them on an extra cot. I won't go into details because of the survivors but my SO had a new machine that was keeping them awake. They were suffering. The nurse gave them a very strong sedative. They curled up in their favorite sleeping position and went to sleep. Just a couple hours later they stopped breathing. At the time I was in shock but I remember thanking the nurses when we left the ward and calling them angels.
- helge9210 5y ago> to inform the patient that the button to administer morphine was in their control Sometimes (I don't have a statistic) in Israel this is used for placebo effect. Patient doesn't control anything, but still might feel a relief.
- girvo 5y agoTypically its not that they have no control, in the cases you're talking about, but the machines do have specified dose limits still. You can press the button as many times as you like, but it typically won't let you hit yourself with a gram of morphine or something. So in that case, I can see the button being an applied placebo effect.
- throwaway48375 5y agoIs there any reason why the new law would make it harder for the nurses to do that?
- gpderetta 5y agoProbably because now that there is a protocol, an ethical nurse would feel compelled to follow it.