A new study conducted by researchers in Oregon has highlighted the difficulties faced by hospice professionals when providing end of life care to patients who choose to commit an assisted suicide.
The study, published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, revealed that 85-95 per cent of people who opt for an assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington are cared for by hospice organisations.
Struggle
However, many professionals struggle to balance the core values of the hospice movement, including high quality care, compassion and non-patient abandonment with state laws permitting physician assisted suicide.
The Medical Express, which has reported on the study, said:
“Hospice is a national program in which trained professionals provide care to terminally ill patients, ensuring they get proper medical care, adequate pain control, are involved in decision-making and have other needs met in a home environment. They work with both the patient and family to help make death a natural and accepted part of life.
Difficult
“However, hastening or actually causing death is not an accepted part of the hospice philosophy, even though hospice programs acknowledge the right of patients to make that choice where it's allowed by law. But balancing core beliefs, such as compassion and non-abandonment of a patient, with the new laws has been difficult at best for hospice professionals….”
The study, entitled “Dignity, Death and Dilemmas” concluded that the current system fails to offer adequate guidance for professionals on this issue, leading to an inconsistent and contradictory approach to assisted suicide laws by hospices across Pacific Northwest states that have legalised the procedure.