Why Choice is an Illusion?
I Was Afraid to Leave My Husband Alone
My husband was seriously ill in Oregon.
I collapsed in a
half-exhausted heap in a chair once I got him into the doctor's office,
relieved that we were going to get badly needed help (or so I thought).
To my surprise and
horror, during the exam I overheard the doctor giving my husband a sales
pitch for assisted suicide. 'Think of what it will spare your wife, we
need to think of her' he said, as a clincher.
Now, if the doctor
had wanted to say 'I don't see any way I can help you, knowing what I
know, and having the skills I have' that would have been one thing. If
he'd wanted to opine that certain treatments weren't worth it as far as
he could see, that would be one thing. But he was tempting my husband to
commit suicide. And that is something different.
I was indignant that
the doctor was not only trying to decide what was best for David, but
also what was supposedly best for me (without even consulting me, no
less).
We got a different
doctor, and David lived another five years or so. But after that
nightmare in the first doctor's office, and encounters with a 'death
with dignity' inclined nurse, I was afraid to leave my husband alone
again with doctors and nurses, for fear they'd morph from care providers
to enemies, with no one around to stop them.
It's not a good thing, wondering who you can trust in a hospital or clinic.
Kathryn Judson
