The Answer to Government "Death Panels"

Living Thoughtfully Dying Well
A Doctor Explains How to Make Death a Natural Part of Life
Glen E. Miller, MD
Herald Press ©2014
ISBN 978-0-8361-9889-8 (ppbk)
156 pp. plus appendices and index

The answer to fears about Obamacare death panels. Dr. Miller challenges us to prefer death with dignity and respect, not hooked to expensive machines that supposedly keep us alive when it’s really our time to die. He supports having people die in the privacy of home, surrounded by family and friends instead of an ICU unit where visits to the patient are limited and the person is probably tied down to prevent pulling out tubes and machines.

To die in dignity, a family must know clearly in advance what a patient desires and insist on that when hope of recovery is gone, no matter what doctors might recommend. Dr. Miller realizes that sometimes doctors try heroic measures for their benefit, not the patient’s or the families. As older people we need to study, discuss and decide what we truly want at the time of our death.

As an RN, I remember once when a patient was kept alive in our ICU for six weeks by a breathing machine and blood pressure medications. We nurses knew the woman could not recover and after a while we all dreaded coming to work to ‘care’ for her. No one had the legal right to stop medical treatments.

We and our families need to know when recovery is impossible so we can make correct decisions. That probably is the most difficult part of deciding about medical treatments. Often home care and hospice are the best medicine.

Dr. Miller lists conditions where recovery for older patients is unlikely. I disagree with him on one point. He says that irreversible memory problems is one condition for which heroic measures to sustain life should not be taken. I have an elderly friend who doesn’t even remember her own son. She’s at peace, fun to converse with, and a joy to be around. If she needed extensive medical care, her mental condition should NOT be a deciding factor.

If Dr. Miller’s book were read by every person alive today (and their families.), we could decide for ourselves instead of being forced by some government panel’s choices about end of life procedures.