A group of British doctors announced that terminal cancer patients should not be given “life extending” drugs. I’m sure you know why without me even having to say it but it’s, of course, about the Benjamins. They say The NHS spends well over £5 billion annually on cancer treatments and that’s just too much for people who are going to die anyway. Never mind, I guess, all those people who receive a prognosis that they’ll be dead in a month and then go on living for many more years.
My brother was terminal and went on to live many more years where he got to love his family and raise his children. These jerks would’ve robbed him of that so they could save the state some money.
The Daily Mail reports:
Patients with terminal cancer should not be given life-extending drugs, doctors said yesterday.
The treatments give false hope and are too costly for the public purse, they warned.
The group of 37 cancer experts, including British specialist Karol Sikora, claimed a ‘culture of excess’ had led doctors to ‘overtreat, overdiagnose and overpromise’.
Let’s be clear. This has nothing to do with giving “false hope” and has everything to do with “the public purse.”
You know, the left is always saying that religious people reject science. But shouldn’t accepting the limitations of science (and scientists) be part of that equation? Isn’t it true that doctors don’t always know what’s going to happen to a patient? Years ago, we were told my father wouldn’t last the night. Yeah, he had five more years too. And they were some of his healthiest years too.
And one final question – aren’t we all terminal? I mean, eventually?
Here’s the thing, when questions of life or death come down to money like this one clearly does, eventually the talk will go from talking about terminal patients to “useful” patients or those who might or might not have “productive” years left to pay more taxes.
If someone is deemed “useful” then they might get some drugs, if not…hey, that’s what assisted suicide is for.
September 27, 2011 at 1:40 pm
I have had a dear friend die a horrible death before my eyes by starvation and dehydration in hospice care — she was denied food and water though she was ABLE TO SWALLOW FOOD and WATER, WAS ABLE TO DIGEST AND WAS ABLE TO BREATHE ON HER OWN. Relatives from out of state not close with her and who ignored her wishes decided for her that food and water should be withheld and the doctor agreed! When I asked the head nurse why my friend was not even allowed a sip of water she said glibly, "Oh, she's fine honey. THIS IS HOW EVERYONE DIES." For real. I asked my priest, whom I trust to be knowledgable in these end of life matters, and he said all we can do at that point is ask if we can wet their mouths with a sponge of water to alleviate pain of oral dehydration…and of course to pray with them and for them. May God have mercy on these souls who make such decisions and on those who carry them out and on those who die routinely because of it. (I had a similar situation with another friend, who was suddenly 'rushed' to hospice when the day prior he still was having treatments, had appointments for further procedures and even a transplant. He was a husband and father. Utterly chilling.)
September 27, 2011 at 2:11 pm
In a five and a half year period, my wife was told she had two weeks to live (ovarian cancer).
The first time, she got the five and half years. Four years later, they told her again, "Two weeks is all you have." She got a year and a half.
The last time, five years and some months into fighting it, they told her again, "Two weeks at best." She got four more months out of it.
She would, in fact, be alive today if she were not denied the chemo she needed, but the "standard of care" for cancer treatment is designed to keep costs low, not extend the life of the patient or to actually kill the cancer.
September 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm
When my wife was put into hospice care at home towards the end, they immediately began to insist that we withhold food "to make her more comfortable," and "…the food only feeds the cancer."
It was insane. There was no way I was going to starve my wife to death in her own home, in front of her children. It was a constant criticism from the hospice nurses that we were "doing the wrong thing" by feeding my wife.
In reality, they were just really annoyed that instead of living just two weeks at home, she lived for four months. And it was an amazing time for my three girls and me, as we got to care for my wife and their mother. It was terribly hard work, but no effort at all, because we loved her.
September 27, 2011 at 2:55 pm
This is what you get with "free" government health care (because health care is now a "right" of everyone). People will have zero control over their healthcare, forced vaccinations, death facilitation, services (lets be upfront and stop calling it "care", please!) rationed, not by the free market, which would keep prices reasonable and quality high, but by godless state functionaries. But hey, its "FREE", picked off the state "healthcare" tree!
September 27, 2011 at 3:06 pm
I don't think it should be a cost decision, but much of the data shows that advanced, end-stage cancer patients do not do better by keeping chemo going. Doctors keep giving it because THEY make big $$$ on it and the families can't accept the inevitable. The average stay in hospice care is a week or two if IIRC, meaning many patients are losing precious time where they could be offered the best comfort care, and instead keep battling chemo until the end.
As far as food, if a cancer patient can eat and drink on their own, yes, of course, you keep on doing that. But the data also shows that force-feeding them via tubes or a TPN line only increases the suffering, as a body shutting down cannot handle an influx of calories like that.
Here is a link to a great article about a group of nuns, I believe in NYS, who take care of their own at the end of life in gentle, compassionate ways without the overuse of medical interventions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/health/09sisters.html
September 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm
laura- This is the reason why single people MUST decide on an agent to make decisions for their healthcare- or yes, it goes to next of kin who might just have an inheritance to think of. My husband (chaplain) has had to turn away 'wives' of dying patients because the men never got official divorces and never made official declarations of an agent- so the first wife who hates the guy gets to make decisions.
September 27, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Yes, thank you 'priest's wife' — this is critical. (no pun intended) It would have made all the difference if they had the proper person making choices for them when someone in healthcare (?) 'determined' they were not able to make decisions for themselves or when they were too weak or in pain –on morphine in the one case — to do so.
September 27, 2011 at 6:36 pm
My aunt was denied food and water in April 2008 in a Catholic nursing home. Catholic hospice told us that if my aunt wanted to eat she shouldn't be on hospice. The nursing home said she had to be on hospice "to get the care she needed." The care: an aide one hour a week M-F (who wouldn't feed her because she wasn't supposed to want to eat).
Don't put your trust in living wills or directives or whatever either. Last fall, an 82 year old family friend had a stroke that paralyzed his left side. His living will stated that he wanted all treatment except for embryonic stem cells. He wasn't in the hospital three weeks and they started asking his 86 year old wife (who had some dementia) if she wanted to stop treatment. They had a caretaker and they started putting pressure on her as well – even though the husband was conscious and fully able to make his own decisions at all times. This family insisted his wishes be respected and man was given a feeding tube, but hospital would have starved him to death if either wife or caretaker would have agreed. This was also a Catholic hospital, though this family was not Catholic. Never at any time did they recommend feeding tube either – family had to ask why he wasn't being given one.
September 27, 2011 at 8:16 pm
We've become a society of killers, really. How long can we last?
Also, just wondering, as I agree that government health care is rotten, but, what do the poor do who can not pay for these chemo treatments? And a host of other expensive medical treatments that the well-off with their private insurance plans can readily pay for to secure their family's proper healthcare.
Always seems like the wealthy and the strong who promote private health care, and I'm not convinced that they will be any more humane than the present veterinarian system we have for human health care which recommends "putting Papa to sleep" by starvation and dehydration.
Really, I have to wonder. How long can we last, killers that we are?
September 27, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Human life, it seems, is becoming a commodity
September 27, 2011 at 9:54 pm
To Anonymous @ 10:06 AM:
Sorry, but if you want to convince me, you're going to have to share an article that is NOT from the New York Times, that is NOT about plain-clothes nuns, that is NOT about nuns who sing "Peace is Like a River."
OTOH, if someone were trying to convince me to check out before the time appointed by God, singing "Peace is flowing like a riiiiiver . . ." just might convince me to end it all. Now.
~Elodie
September 27, 2011 at 10:33 pm
The court may decide against heroic care but cannot dictate against the corporal works of mercy as in feeding the hungry because mercy is a matter of religion. Starving a person to death is a crime and crime cannot be legislated.
Mary De Voe
September 28, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Personally, I do not believe these doctors really mean what was reported. Not exactly.
Exceptions are to be expected for themselves and their loved ones. Are we really to believe otherwise? The proposed policy is for everyone else.