Articles
A collection of articles I’ve published on end-of-life decisions.
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Failing to tell patients that nothing will help may only make them suffer more
Why is it so hard to tell chronically ill patients that further treatment is futile — that it might erode their quality of life without making a difference in their life expectancy?
Surgeons do it indirectly when they declare a patient “inoperable,” a determination of futility that people generally accept, maybe because the harm of ineffective surgery is so obvious that it can’t be avoided.
Feb. 26, 2018 in Health & Science
Mission creep doesn’t benefit patients at the end of life
When my father was 88 and the picture of health for his age, he taught me, an experienced physician, an unexpected lesson.
We were discussing treatment options promoted by his primary-care physician and other doctors for an aortic aneurysm — a ballooned segment of blood vessel at risk for dangerous rupture in his abdomen. He turned to me and asked, “Why would I want to fix something that is going to carry me away the way I want to go?”
Aug. 22, 2016 in Health & Science
A united family can make all the difference when someone is dying
The blessings and curses of families are not limited to holiday gatherings, graduations, weddings and funerals. They also exist at the transition of the matriarch or patriarch from life to death.
Like many elderly Americans, my father wanted to die at home. He was clear on that point. But also like many elderly Americans, he gave mixed signals about what treatment he would accept or decline with that goal in mind.
Nov. 16, 2016 in Health & Science
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Having a good death is not so simple
When my father was 88 and the picture of health for his age, he taught me, an experienced physician, an unexpected lesson.
As a physician who supports a patient’s right to make decisions concerning life and death, I believe that medical aid in dying should be available to the terminally ill in Maine. But as with most end-of-life decision-making, it is not simple. To their detriment, some think that having a stash of pills in the bedside drawer is sufficient to engineer a good death. It is not.
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Taking Control of Your Final Chapter
I am not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens. – Woody Allen
The widely promoted notion that we Americans are living progressively longer, healthier lives is inaccurate.
Life expectancy is no longer increasing in the U.S., even for us, the MEA demographic – educated, curious, and health-conscious.
Chronic illness and the weaknesses of old age plague the lives of the vast majority of us who are lucky enough to exceed the average life expectancy (at best about 80 for men and 86 for women).
Other articles by Sam Harrington
Yes Or No To Treatment? The Conundrum Of Decision-Making When Elderly
This article originally appeared on GapYearAfterSixty.com. By Sam Harrington Whenever I try to convey the message that an aggressive treatment might not be in the best interests of an elderly patient, that message is at risk of being drowned out by the memory of a...
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Considering Your Options When Lethal Injection Is Not Available
This article originally appeared on GapYearAfterSixty.com. By Sam Harrington Lethal injection is not the only way to assert some control over how you die when you are old and suffering from a terminal illness. You might not know that if you read the recent piece by...
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I’ve also written about what it means to take a continuing Gap Year – more than forty years after I was supposed to take time out before starting real life.