Fresh Air : NPR
October 9, 2012
Many of us think of death as the worst possible outcome for a terminally ill patient, but Judith Schwarz disagrees.
Schwarz, a patient supporter at the nonprofit Compassion & Choices, says prolonging death can be a far worse fate. For many patients, good palliative or hospice care can alleviate suffering, yet “a small but significant proportion of dying patients suffer intolerably,” Schwarz writes.
Based in the New York area, Compassion & Choices is an organization that helps terminally ill patients and their families make informed and thoughtful end-of-life decisions to hasten a patient’s death. These decisions are not made impulsively, Schwarz tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “Nobody makes this choice unless the burdens of living have so consistently, day after day, outweighed all benefit.”
Read the full article and/or listen to the interview (37:54) at Fresh Air : NPR
