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Hasten death11/8/2022 If Arnold could have asked the Stanford medical ethicist David Magnus, he could have explained what assisted suicide is-and what it isn’t. “I couldn’t ask the nurse that,” Arnold says. She was afraid that if she asked, it would betray the thoughts she was having about that extra vial of morphine. Falk on their wedding day (Photo courtesy Kelly Dunsford)Īrnold worried that Falk was in a lot of pain. Arnold says the hospice nurse offered another euphemism: “He said, ‘He’s showing signs of imminence.’” Over the next couple days, Falk deteriorated quickly. “And I said to J.D., ‘I think he may have given this to me so I can give you an overdose.’ And he said, ‘Maybe.’ And then we didn’t talk about it anymore.” “When I got home, it hit me like a ton of bricks,” Arnold remembers. And he put it back in my hand and he said, ‘You might need it.’” “And he looked at me,” she says, “and he held my gaze for a second. She told the doctor the hospice was going to bring a machine that would administer Falk’s pain medication automatically. He said, ‘You might need it.’ ”Īrnold says she handed the bottle back. “And then he handed me a bottle of liquid morphine. “He hugged me and asked me how I was holding up,” she says. The day her husband was discharged from the hospital, Arnold was dropping off some paperwork when she bumped into one of his doctors. “All the nurses, all the doctors, everybody we ever interacted with, no one said, ‘You’re dying.’” And Hope made arrangements for him to come home on hospice. And that’s when Falk, who was just 35, started to plan. “everybody we ever interacted with, no one said, ‘You’re dying.’” “All the nurses, all the doctors,” says Arnold. Falk was being treated for stomach cancer in 2011, no one would talk straight with them. She says throughout the 10 months her husband J.D. That’s what still frustrates Hope Arnold. Family members, in the midst of one of the most confusing and emotional times of their lives, are left to interpret euphemisms. Doctors and nurses want to help but also want to avoid prosecution, so they speak carefully, parsing their words. This leads to bizarre, veiled conversations between medical professionals and overwhelmed families. #Hasten death how toSick patients sometimes ask for help in hastening their deaths, and some doctors will hint, vaguely, how to do it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen in the rest. SAN FRANCISCO-Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in all but five states.
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