It’s funny how people only start thinking about death when either a loved one has passed away, or they’re facing their own imminent mortality. But the time to talk and think about death is not at the end — but throughout your life.
Because unbeknownst to you, there is an entire profession aligned against you having a good death. And that is (nearly) the entire profession of doctors.
I was listening to “Fresh Air” on NPR yesterday with Terry Gross speaking to bioethicist Tia Powell about having a good death with dementia, among other topics. It made me think of my own dad’s recent death, and whether we provided him with a good death or not.
My dad died late last year. We tried our best to provide him with a good death, but it still wasn’t easy. What happens in Parkinson’s, along with dementias such as Alzheimer’s, is that the brain deteriorates. It stops functioning for other things, such as balance, which is so important for so many other activities. It also affects your muscles and we use muscles to swallow, so swallowing becomes extremely difficult.
So a lot of families face the decision about whether to use a feeding tube or not. Because if a person can’t swallow, they can’t take in new food and will eventually die due to that. It’s a decision we had to make for my dad, but for us it was an easy one since a feeding tube isn’t going to really help do anything for my dad’s quality of life — which had already deteriorated to the point where extending his life didn’t make much sense.
But for some families, a feeding tube seems to make sense because professionals — including nursing staff and doctors — recommend it. It makes their jobs easier, and they believe it helps to extend a person’s life.
Continue reading
No comments:
Post a Comment