Choice over dying
But, unfortunately, this ignores the fact that palliative care does not relieve all suffering in all patients. Some patients suffer distressing deaths in spite of the best palliative care. The reality is that palliative care is like other medical treatments, often of great benefit, but also with limitations and failures.
There is also a small minority of patients who do not want to go down the palliative care route at all.
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Hide AdThey simply hate the idea of their deterioration, their increasing dependency, their loss of control over what is happening to them, and their having to complain about symptoms and receive unpleasant treatments.
These patients say they are going to die soon anyway – why are they forced to go through all of this?
We cannot turn a blind eye to these categories of patients whom the present system fails. The way forward is both to make good palliative care more widely available, and to enact Margo MacDonald’s bill to give patients the right to choose for themselves the way in which they die.
(Dr) Jack A Macfie
Albert Terrace