Medical Assistance in Dying: Not as Easy as it Looks | Joel Zivot | TEDxEmory

[LTD-]

*Im terminally ill myself and have lived probally a year longer than i was supposed too, my heart is shutting down, im at 15% muscle left, most die at 25%. The hardest thing for me is people dont want to hear it, or before i can even finish my story they interrupt me telling me all their illnesses. Even people im trying to say goodbye to cut me off and dont seem to care that im just letting them know before its over for me. Its very frustrating so i keep quite now, but inside i just want to scream at them and yell hey dummy im dying and im trying to say goodbye, but the worse part is so many think im lying cause i walk around and look healthy, but inside im hurting so bad because the pain, its like i have this big rock in my chest thats growing, and the more it grows the worse the pain. Sometimes i just go home and lay down because i feel so bad, my head hurts, my chest hurts and my inside hurts, but nobody wants to hear it. And btw im not afraid of dying at all because i know where im going, it would just be freaking nice if someone would listen to me and how i feel*

[leddhed]

Dr. Zivot was one of my instructors during my anesthesiology residency at the University of Michigan in the late 90’s. I still remember rounding with him in the ICU. Brilliant, humble and personable.

[TheHigherVoltage]

Medical assistance is dying is most definitely easier and more humane than suffering in unspeakable agony for weeks while terminal cancer eats you from the inside out, and your loved ones watch you waste away to a shell.

[AndrewWhite-id]

There is a major difference. Lethal injection is performed on someone who does not want to die. But medical assistance in dying is given to someone who is eager and willing to take it to finish their lives without extended and excessive suffering.

[jack_knife-]

Everybody should have the right to die when they're suffering

[Amandaaa]

Being an ICU doc you'd think he would understand that suffering for weeks or months is much less desirable than suffering for a minute or 2.

[Labelup]

Spoken like a man who doesn't want to die every second of every day because the pain is unbearable

[sergiosaucedo]

I was a hospice nurse, and I must say in my 4 years never did I see a patient in true agonizing pain. Once you stop providing fluids and nutrition to a person, the body shuts down in the most peaceful of ways. I remember following this experience, my first day at an ICU I was horrified because I was not used to seeing so much pain!

[nicolebp]

Wow a different perspective but I'm still for assisted dying because once the medication is injected only have to suffer 1 min at most before my heart stops

[joeditchett]

I'm not entirely sure why we need to old or terminally ill to have a right to die. We should all have a right to assisted death regardless of age or health.

[oldladywhocares]

I watched the killing of my dear mare when she was 28 with a terrible painful colic. Whom I had shared my life for 26 of those years. She was aware, her eyes popped open, she started, then sank down and was gone. It was Thanksgiving day. The vet husband was there so he could be with her as she was on call that day. She cried, he cried, two friends who had cared for and ridden her and I cried. We all hugged each other.
The other horses at the facility watched this; they saw her body in the field, lying in her favorite clover patch. They were very quiet for several days considering me when I approached them, very carefully. They knew she was dead.
I saw my husband die; I saw my Mom die. I still cry for all of them. There were many others in my life who died; Being a living being is tough. Lest you think that I didn't care for these beloved souls.

[BifMalibu-to]

This is such an interesting and difficult topic. Most of the comments I’ve read are those talking about when MAID would be welcomed and the most humane thing that can be done in many medical situations. I empathize and agree with your viewpoints, but I also can’t imagine how difficult it would be for me to provide MAID as medical care. Beneficence is a principle in medical ethics that requires healthcare providers to act in the best interest of their patients and to promote their well-being. It is based on the idea that healthcare providers have a moral obligation to do good and to prevent harm to their patients. In the context of medical practice, beneficence requires healthcare providers to provide treatments that will benefit their patients and to take actions that will promote their health and well-being. This principle emphasizes the importance of promoting the patient's welfare as the primary goal of medical care. The principle of beneficence is often cited as a justification for MAID, as it emphasizes the importance of promoting the welfare of patients and prioritizing their well-being above all else. Providing patients with the option to end their life in a peaceful and dignified manner can be an act of compassion and can help to alleviate their suffering. While I can logically understand this reasoning, and I agree with it, I still wrestle with the idea of providing such palliative care in my personal practice in the future.
The principle of beneficence is also closely linked to the principle of non-maleficence, which requires healthcare providers to avoid causing harm to their patients. Critics of MAID might argue that intentionally ending a patient's life can be a violation of this principle. In practice, the principle of beneficence requires healthcare providers to carefully consider the potential benefits and risks of MAID for each individual patient, and to make decisions that prioritize their well-being and promote their dignity. Assessing the patient's physical and psychological pain is an essential part of making this decision, but defining the line of when death would be more beneficial than life seems like it would be extremely difficult, and I can see how those decisions could weigh heavily on a physician’s mind for decades.
I wanted to say that your stories in the comments help me to see this ethical concept as a more tangible problem that physicians should be dealing with well before they have a patient who needs MAID. I still don’t know if I’d be comfortable with providing that service myself, I’m coming around to the idea that my personal beliefs are secondary to the needs of suffering patients, and I welcome further input as to how a medical student and future physician can prepare themselves for complex ethical dilemmas such as MAID.

[dorothybarrett]

This fellow, eloquent and knowledgeable as he is, and every commenter here who says MAID is murder, need to thoroughly familiarize themselves with every step of the devastating and always fatal disease ALS. If anything, sufferers of that disease should be allowed, if they so wish, to die earlier on in the progression of that cruel onslaught.

[NunayoBisnez]

If people are allowed to die quickly under their own terms and that becomes the norm, it would be a HUGE blow to doctors' and hospitals' profit margins. They want you to be hospitalized for months on end where they can charge you/your estate hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[hotbooinva]

As others have mentioned: so what? His point is that people ultimately die of multiple organ failure up to and including drowning in their own fluids. Yeah? OK? So what? They are unconscious. Surgeons do some pretty invasive procedures that would be pretty damn traumatic if the patient were concious. But they aren't and they none the wiser when they come to.
It is admirable to ensure that people are aware of the implications of the decisions they may have, but it's inhumane to take a decision like this away from them.

[treelore]

um... if he ever has a long slow painful illness that meds don't touch and he feels nausea, no good sleep and endless suffering he may change his mind.

[fredphilippi]

I respect Joel Zivot for his opinion. It is clear he is not an advocate of medical aid in dying. I am.

[KAMALAISHERNAME]

This is just another attempt to discourage people from doing what THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO. LEAVE FOLKS IF THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT TO DO BCUZ THEY HAVE NO HOPE, LET THEM BE!

[CherryRedBanshee]

I can’t say I have an opinion on assisted suicide. I think that choosing to have a gentle, quiet death instead of waiting for prolonged suffering to end is understandable, but I get the feeling that assisted suicide can very well become an abused power.

[beepbeep]

here because it was recently announced that canada will be making MAID available to those with mental illnesses