Why Torture Patients at the End of Life?
We wouldn’t do it to a pet. So why do it to mom and dad? Here is a doctor’s plea:
[W]ithout a realistic, tactile sense of how much a worn-out elderly patient is suffering, it’s easy for patients and families to keep insisting on more tests, more medications, more procedures. … When their loved one does die, family members can tell themselves, “We did everything we could for Mom.” … At a certain stage of life, aggressive medical treatment can become sanctioned torture. When a case such as this comes along, nurses, physicians and therapists sometimes feel conflicted and immoral. … A retired nurse once wrote to me: “I am so glad I don’t have to hurt old people anymore.”
Full Washington Post editorial via Robin Hanson.