Pro

“It would be hard for me to construct addressing the suffering of a terminally ill patient as a harm. It is an obligation. The question is, how we can respond to those kinds of sufferings? Part of our job, in my opinion, is to help people die better. I say that in a direct way because it irks me when we say that doctors should not help people die. We need people who are committed to caring for people all the way through to their death as if they were family members, committed to relieving their suffering. Sometimes that requires helping people to die. It is not a happy day when we are taking people off life support. We do not like to do it. Sometimes we dream about it afterward. But we do it because we have to do it, because the patient is saying that they do not want it anymore. They have had it. We understand. We all talk about it. We make sense of it. We support each other.”

Aug. 25, 2016