"In less than 10 minutes, the air in the room felt lighter – not because the situation changed, but because truth, spoken with tenderness, created space for autonomy, comfort, and connection." -- Cathy Yuhas
"I interviewed a retired airline pilot about the issue. He confirmed that the captain and crew have ultimate authority and that CPR use is the protocol that overrides a DNR." -- Althea Halchuck
"One of our team nurses shared that her only training on caring for the dying involved a lecture from a funeral home manager."
"The legal method I suggest most for a dignified and peaceful death is to stop all treatments, especially antibiotics."
"There should be a JLMA form: Just Leave Me Alone, for those of us who concede that we’re actually going to die some day and work to keep our end-times as inexpensive and comfortable as possible."
“They made the end of his life horrible and painful and humiliating,” Elaine Greenberg said. “What’s the sense of having a living will if it’s not honored?”
A "good" death is one in which you exert maximum autonomy over your end-of-life journey. Here are some checklists for what needs to be done.
Managing dying and death is difficult enough. But if you do nothing, you’ll be a pawn in a profit-driven medical system.
When you believe it’s time to go, what options do you really have? There are more than you you think, without having to resort to a violent ending.
Part 2 of How We Learn About Death by Dr. Terri Daniel.
