I remember what it was like to be a medical student at a well-known cancer hospital where patients were dying of cancer. In life's final stages, it was not uncommon for physicians to increase the dose of morphine; it alleviated pain, eased labored breathing, and yes, probably hastened the inevitable for patients who were in their final hours. In these scenarios, no one considered this euthanasia, and no one questioned whether it was the right thing to do.
Fast-forward to 2023 when the act of a physician hastening a patient's death has become a controversial topic as criteria have expanded. Like all such topics in our polarized society, people aligned on sides, politics, and religion rush to the head of the room, legislation is proposed, and words take on new meanings. If you're in favor of legalization of clinician assistance in a patient's death, the term is medical assistance in dying (MAID). If you're opposed, the term is the more graphic physician-assisted suicide.
The scenario is entirely different from what I saw in my medical school rotations decades ago. It's no longer an issue of easing the pain and discomfort of patients' final hours; the question now is whether, faced with a potentially terminal or progressively debilitating physical illness, a patient has the right to determine when, and how, their life will end, and the medical profession is given a role in this.
COMMENTARY
As Psychiatrists, Do We Offer Hope or Do We Offer Death?
Dinah Miller, MD
DisclosuresJuly 07, 2023
I remember what it was like to be a medical student at a well-known cancer hospital where patients were dying of cancer. In life's final stages, it was not uncommon for physicians to increase the dose of morphine; it alleviated pain, eased labored breathing, and yes, probably hastened the inevitable for patients who were in their final hours. In these scenarios, no one considered this euthanasia, and no one questioned whether it was the right thing to do.
Fast-forward to 2023 when the act of a physician hastening a patient's death has become a controversial topic as criteria have expanded. Like all such topics in our polarized society, people aligned on sides, politics, and religion rush to the head of the room, legislation is proposed, and words take on new meanings. If you're in favor of legalization of clinician assistance in a patient's death, the term is medical assistance in dying (MAID). If you're opposed, the term is the more graphic physician-assisted suicide.
The scenario is entirely different from what I saw in my medical school rotations decades ago. It's no longer an issue of easing the pain and discomfort of patients' final hours; the question now is whether, faced with a potentially terminal or progressively debilitating physical illness, a patient has the right to determine when, and how, their life will end, and the medical profession is given a role in this.
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Cite this: As Psychiatrists, Do We Offer Hope or Do We Offer Death? - Medscape - Jul 07, 2023.
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Authors and Disclosures
Authors and Disclosures
Author
Dinah Miller, MD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Psychiatrist in private practice
Disclosure: Dinah Miller, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.