Right to die

[wendybeth]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

While your information is hearsay (I'm assuming you're friend wasn't involved in the case but rather providing more general information), if we assume that the doctors made this choice of treatment knowing it would hasten her inevitable death, I wonder if they explained this result to her.

The person who provided the information was a medical doctor who was friends with Betty, but wasn't involved in her treatment. I doubt they discussed it with her, as she wasn't really in the frame of mind to make any such decisions. Her children were consulted. The main things causing the severe pain were inoperable tumors on her spine and hips, which were destroying the bone. (Her liver was also involved, which is why pain meds were ineffective). An arguement could be made that they did the chemo in an attempt to retard the growth of the tumors, but it also made her very sick to her stomach, and that (for a short period of time, until she slipped into a coma) was not good, as any movement caused horrible pain. I was angry about this, but it really was a bad situation all the way around, and in the end we were just very relieved for her, in that her pain had ended.