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Comment by le-mark | Hacker News Reader

This is essentially what hospice is in the US. They stop curative treatment and focus on comfort. Then at the end when the person can no longer function to eat or drink they increase the morphine dose to a high level until they pass.

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Right. It's a not-so-well-kept secret that hospice care is actually assisted suicide in disguise. It's done with a wink and a nudge, hiding behind the principle of double effect, but it's a mercy everyone knows is happening. It's sad that it has to be done covertly.

This is a misconception—research has found that people entering hospice often live longer than those who do not:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S088539240...

There are many who will raise their hands with anecdotal counters to this, but I think much of that is borne from misunderstandings about end of life generally, which is a charged and difficult topic lots of people would rather not learn more about.

I highly recommend the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawande for anyone who wants to explore the topic further—or really for anyone who has loved ones at all!

Very interesting. This definitely contradicts my direct experience. I'll have to give the study a close read. Thank you for sharing it.

Of course, bring the patient home to die is no different. And nobody would call that assisted suicide.

Which is highly illegal, especially as a form of monetizing pain and lack of agency from elders incapable of decision making but flush with money and inheritors

And replies like this is why it’s clandestine.

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