Nurturing hope among patients with cancer and their caregivers is possible and includes coping strategies and exploring realistic goals.
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Patients with incurable cancer want to be informed about their disease and its treatment, but must also maintain hope. This inner conflict can affect how they process information about their prognosis.
In advocates’ eyes, expanding access to a medically assisted death helps people protect their autonomy at a crucial time.
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It’s illegal to discuss voluntary assisted dying via telehealth, which means people who live in rural areas and those who can’t physically go to see a doctor may not be able to access the scheme.
Palliative care is often seen as a ‘last resort’ rather than a service that empowers terminally ill people to live as well as possible for as long as possible.
There is debate about whether a health-care worker can ethically participate in both palliative care and the MAID program.
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Bill C-7 has created ethical tensions between MAID providers and palliative care, between transparency and patient privacy, and between offering a dignified death rather than a dignified life.
Olivia Coleman and Anthony Hopkins in The Father (2020)
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Terminally ill research participants wanted to have the option of assisted dying if they needed it, and felt they knew best when the time was right for them to die.
From June 19, Victorians at the end of their lives can request medical assistance to die. Voluntary assisted dying may offer a new option for some, but the practice will be strictly regulated.
One of the great success stories in healthcare, a quarter of the UK hospice sector is said to be close to collapse.
Palliative care involves a team of specialised health professionals who provide an extra layer of support to the person and their family.
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Polls show a clear majority support assisted dying in Britain – but it depends on how the question is asked.
Assisted dying legislation is likely to be introduced in Victorian Parliament within a month, and be based on a report launched today by Brian Owler and Jill Hennessy.
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Ben White, Queensland University of Technology et Lindy Willmott, Queensland University of Technology
Public opinion, shifting views in the health profession and international trends allowing assisted dying mean it will be lawful in Australia at some point. But will it be lawful in Victoria soon?
Existential suffering refers to an individual experiencing a lack of meaning or sense of purposelessness in life.
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Imagine this situation: a person has no medical illness but wishes to end his or her life purely because he or she no longer wishes to live. Should they be eligible for euthanasia or assisted suicide?
Talking about advance care planning should be seen as part of palliative care.
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During a discussion on Q&A, author Nikki Gemmell said 80% of Australians and up to 70% of Catholics and Anglicans support euthanasia laws. Is that right?
Giving carers at home more power could save a lot of unnecessary pain.
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‘Lay carers’ could be given the power to administer pain medication to the terminally ill at home.
One paper reported that between 0.3% to 4.6% of all deaths are reported as euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in jurisdictions where they are legal.
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Just because a person is dying does not mean that he or she is in a state of panic. Here’s an example of how one woman, through a well-lived life, remained at peace as she faced death.