End of Life - Hospice

With a growing elder population in the United States, there are questions about the Church’s stand on issues like assisted suicide and euthanasia, and programs like hospice. Over the next weeks, we will be addressing end-of-life issues like these, and what the Church teaches.

End-of-life issues have been thrust into the spotlight in recent years by the debate surrounding several states’ attempts to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Supporters of physician-assisted suicide point to the potential physical suffering and loss of independence associated with terminal illnesses. They argue that when faced with the side effects of treatments like chemotherapy and the general loss of dignity, many patients achieve a sense of peace when told of alternatives, like taking an overdose of doctor-prescribed drugs. There are, however, very few doctors who support physician-assisted suicide and would be willing participate in this.
Additionally, providers of hospice care say that services are already available to help people with terminal illnesses live and die in comfort, control, and dignity, without the moral and practical problems raised by physician-assisted suicide.
What is hospice?

Hospice is care for people with a prognosis of less than six months to live. It aims to control the symptoms and pain associated with a patient’s condition rather than trying to cure it. But hospice is about more than just reducing pain: hospice treats the whole person, treating a patient’s body, mind, and spirit, as well as caring for the family of the patient, who is also affected by the terminal illness.

Contrary to the common misconception that “hospice equals death,” the philosophy of hospice is to neither hasten nor postpone death. Hospice is more about quality of life, and having that until the end of life, than it is about dying.

Hospice providers have become so good at alleviating physical suffering that unbearable pain is no longer a valid argument for assisted suicide. Additionally, the natural dying process allows for patients and their families to experience reconciliation, love, forgiveness: all of the stages that people need to go through to be able to die peacefully.

Last December, Pope Benedict paid a visit to Rome Hospice Foundation and praised the health care workers for the service they provided. Whoever has a sense of human dignity knows, the Pope said, that those with incurable illnesses should be respected and sustained while they face the difficulties and the suffering tied to their health conditions.

First and foremost on the mind of the Church is safeguarding life, our God-given gift.