How could ‘intolerable suffering’ be quantified to justify ending a life?

[Michie]

Sufferers can realise the suffering was not so intolerable after all


Intolerable and hopeless (meaning without prospect of improvement) suffering is an eligibility criterion for euthanasia/assisted suicide in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada. Despite having been used as such a criterion for decades (at least in the Netherlands; shorter periods in other countries), it is still widely debated as to its meaning and applicability as an operational criterion.

One paper by Dr Lieve Thienpont and colleagues from Belgium has raised important issues regarding the criterion. In that paper, they report on a qualitative analysis of what one might call “testimonies of suffering” of over two dozen patients who requested euthanasiaor physician-assisted suicide (EAS) based on psychiatric disorders.

One patient, a 52-year-old woman, is quoted:

…Moreover, the people around you cannot believe that you want to die, because you’re looking so good, so no one would allow you to die. So when I finally got the permission to die, that was a huge relief. [ … ] I have to admit that since my request to die was considered to be acceptable, I’m experiencing better moments and I’m also in doubt now. I’m still in therapy and there we discuss other available options.

The authors of the paper quote another patient — a 30-year-old woman — as an example of how a patient’s suffering is compounded by “friends, family and/or physicians neglecting or underestimating these struggles and suffering”, or “sweeping aside”(ignoring) the patient’s request for euthanasia:

Saying that someone is working, studying and experiencing a good home situation — and therefore asking what the problem is — is a commonplace platitude that undermines my readiness to open up, as you’ve noticed earlier. It’s a question that I can expect from non-therapists and which detracts from the fact that I suffer unbearably. Would that also mean that a cancer patient, who works and experiences a good home situation, can’t suffer unbearably? Work or study isn’t sufficient, as feeling at home in this world means so much more.

I think there are several things we can learn from these patients. But first some background: According to a previous paper by the same authors (Thienpont et al, BMJ Open 2015), these patients had been deemed to be suffering intolerably and also without prospect for improvement due to their conditions being treatment resistant. Thus, they met two of the crucial eligibility criteria for euthanasia in Belgium. In this paper, the authors reported that 16 percent of persons (8 out of 48) granted approval for EAS changed their minds, like the first patient described above.

Continued below.
How could 'intolerable suffering' be quantified to justify ending a life? » MercatorNet

 

[Arc F1]

Sufferers can realise the suffering was not so intolerable after all


Intolerable and hopeless (meaning without prospect of improvement) suffering is an eligibility criterion for euthanasia/assisted suicide in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada. Despite having been used as such a criterion for decades (at least in the Netherlands; shorter periods in other countries), it is still widely debated as to its meaning and applicability as an operational criterion.

One paper by Dr Lieve Thienpont and colleagues from Belgium has raised important issues regarding the criterion. In that paper, they report on a qualitative analysis of what one might call “testimonies of suffering” of over two dozen patients who requested euthanasiaor physician-assisted suicide (EAS) based on psychiatric disorders.

One patient, a 52-year-old woman, is quoted:

…Moreover, the people around you cannot believe that you want to die, because you’re looking so good, so no one would allow you to die. So when I finally got the permission to die, that was a huge relief. [ … ] I have to admit that since my request to die was considered to be acceptable, I’m experiencing better moments and I’m also in doubt now. I’m still in therapy and there we discuss other available options.

The authors of the paper quote another patient — a 30-year-old woman — as an example of how a patient’s suffering is compounded by “friends, family and/or physicians neglecting or underestimating these struggles and suffering”, or “sweeping aside”(ignoring) the patient’s request for euthanasia:

Saying that someone is working, studying and experiencing a good home situation — and therefore asking what the problem is — is a commonplace platitude that undermines my readiness to open up, as you’ve noticed earlier. It’s a question that I can expect from non-therapists and which detracts from the fact that I suffer unbearably. Would that also mean that a cancer patient, who works and experiences a good home situation, can’t suffer unbearably? Work or study isn’t sufficient, as feeling at home in this world means so much more.

I think there are several things we can learn from these patients. But first some background: According to a previous paper by the same authors (Thienpont et al, BMJ Open 2015), these patients had been deemed to be suffering intolerably and also without prospect for improvement due to their conditions being treatment resistant. Thus, they met two of the crucial eligibility criteria for euthanasia in Belgium. In this paper, the authors reported that 16 percent of persons (8 out of 48) granted approval for EAS changed their minds, like the first patient described above.

Continued below.
How could 'intolerable suffering' be quantified to justify ending a life? » MercatorNet

I can understand it in some situations but not just because of being depressed.

I watched my father go through the last stages of cancer. In the last week or so he was in so much pain he just gave up. On his last morning I was told he got up and said he was feeling no pain at all. Drank a cup of coffee, layed down and stopped breathing.

Recently I was with my neighbor in the hospital during his last moments. He was struggling to breath. He had experienced a couple heart attacks and his lungs gave out.

There is point when all hope is lost and its sad to see a person go through that.

 

[NerdGirl]

Watching anyone die is heartbreaking. But it is part of life, and natural, and the way God designed things.

I fully support hospice and palliative care, to make a person as comfortable as possible during their final days.

I fear that policies like the one in the OP will only result in ever-increasing numbers of suicides. It's hard to imagine how it would break our Lord's heart. There is much grace and mercy to be found in the midst of extreme suffering, even at the end of life. I fully acknowledge the grief of seeing someone we love in their final moments, especially if they're in pain or discomfort. But it is not our place to snuff out that life a moment before its time.

Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

All the days. Even the final ones.