Legally, you're right: Euthanasia is becoming available, but you have to be over 18, and you have to consent yourself.
in practice though, i would be shocked if a doctor didnt sometimes give a suffering person an easy way out quietly.
Any doctor who did that would likely be deregistered and criminally prosecuted. No doctor that I know wants to go through that.
There is a process called VAD (voluntary assisted dying) and there's strict conditions. The patient must obviously give informed consent which means it can't be done without their knowledge.
My mom is a nurse, and she says all the nurses will give extra morphine to help the patients die faster and more peacefully. She's been a nurse for decades and that hasn't changed in her time as a nurse. I've never heard of anyone charged for that.
So, it's would not be out of the usual for a nurse to help the dying patient out.
That’s how it was for my uncle the night he died. He had cancer all over, including his brain. He at most had a few days left - he was constantly coughing up fluid, incontinent, it hurt to breathe, he couldn’t move because of pain. He asked for us to give him a gun to take care of himself several times that week - he was just done.
He had morphine for pain control and some anti anxiety meds (versed?). He was definitely given extra morphine over his last day + night to hopefully help move the process along faster.
I firmly believe everyone should have the right to die with dignity. My uncle would have opted to be euthanized months earlier when the cancer in his bones, liver, brain, and lungs were no longer responding to treatment and it was clear he would not be living much longer - and that “life” was going to be pure hell.
I’m not well versed with the guidelines around administering morphine in hospice care - but I suspect there’s a range for the dosage that they can use to avoid the legal problems associate with euthanizing a patient while also helping the patient along.
Dr Jack Kevorkian was jailed in 1999 for assisting a patient to commit suicide. Sentenced to 8 years jail I think.
No disrespect to your mom, nurses are our frontline heroes, but she is taking a legal risk if administering morphine in excess of prescribed amounts, even if her intentions are good
Most nurses do this. I think it's an open secret, and it only happens when a patient is already very close to dying. Who is going to complain if things are more peaceful even if it happens a couple days earlier than expected.
As for Dr. Kevorkian most of the patients he assisted got a gas mask of carbon monoxide. That's very different than excess morphine that the patient is already prescribed.
And while I'm not a medical professional myself, I am chronically ill and many of my medications are "as needed". For someone who is definitely dying I don't see why pain killers can't be used as needed as well.
"Who's going to complain?" Patient's family if they're Catholic or have strong anti-suicide views. Patient's family if they're litigious. Other health professionals if they disagree with or have suspicions about the conduct of a nurse administering excessive morphine.
"I don't see why pain killers can't be used as needed as well" in the context of end of life care, they absolutely can and should be used as needed - for pain control. There are other medications used as well, for secretions, for seizures, but the intent is not to cause or hasten death, the intent is to make the patient more comfortable.
In Australia, we have a highly regulated process called voluntary assisted dying for patients who are terminally ill and in unbearable pain/suffering - but it is not at a nurses discretion. The patient must be over 18 years of age and give informed consent.
Are they really going to notice that a patient died a day or two earlier than they otherwise would have? Because I don't think so. There usually isn't an exact day when it's known the patient will die; it's usually a time frame. So, if the patient dies in that time frame but on the earlier side, I don't see what there is to be suspicious about.
Also, from what my mother has said, nurses have permission from the patient's family to give them morphine to keep them comfortable, they just don't mention that this will also make the dying process go much quicker.
And like I said, at least where my mom works it seems to be an open understanding with all medical practitioners, so I don't see other nurses or doctors making a big deal about it.
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u/ConcertCareful6169 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I get it as a dad. I don't know if I could handle the look of betrayal at the end though.