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by jnardiello 3705 days ago
Same situation in Italy. Unfortunately. Anyone wanting a be euthanised has to travel Switzerland, which is not always feasible at end-of-life (also considering that the whole procedure costs ~20k$).

I spent my civil service as an EMT and only once I saw a doctor giving the daughter of a terminally ill woman a piece of advice I will never forget (this woman was in such bad conditions, she simply wasn't there anymore and spent 100% of her time with morphin-induced allucinations): after giving her the morphin prescription he told her that "nobody is going to go behind you if you give her an overdose" - implying that she could end her suffering but she had to be the one killing her.

It was by far one of the hardest moment of my life, and I was just a passive witness. It was just brutal.

1 comments

One thing I've heard of is people "leaving the bottle open" next to the bed. That way the ill person can "accidentally" decide for themselves.
I've heard similar. Also with family members being taught how to use the morphine IV dripper, and what a fatal dose looks like.

The alternative is for patients to refuse food and water until they die.

I'd been thinking about this a lot because my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness 3+ years ago. We'd discussed euthanasia, and he definitely didn't want to spend his final 6-12 months suffering.

Because he didn't die, the docs took another look and realised he'd been misdiagnosed (and yes, we got 2nd & 3rd opinions after the initial diagnosis).

Insane. In your case, I'm glad your dad was misdiagnosed for the good. I can't imagine how this misdiagnose impacted your life and your family during the last few years.