Letters
Death from motor neurone disease can be peaceful
EDITOR,--Peter Millard's review of "Death on Request"1 raises several questions about the illness of Cees Van Werder de Joode and its "management" by euthanasia. From the film it appears that Cees was offered euthanasia as the alternative to a death from motor neurone disease when he would "probably suffocate" and "suffer terribly." However, palliative care offers an alternative to these extremes, and symptoms can be controlled so that death can be peaceful. A large survey of patients with motor neurone disease at St Christopher's Hospice showed that choking and suffocation do not occur.2 A patient with motor neurone disease and his family can be helped to find the positive aspects of their life and can be helped to live until death comes naturally.
The programme may have encouraged further debate on euthanasia, but it showed a one sided approach to the care of terminally ill patients and perpetuated the myths
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Public deaths, private doubts..
- Peter H Millard
BMJ 1995 310: 746-747.[Full Text]
This Article
- Full text
- Respond to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when responses are posted
- Alert me when a correction is posted
Services
- Email this article to a friend
- Find similar articles in BMJ
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Related Content
-
End of life decisions (geriatric medicine)
-
End of life decisions (palliative care)
-
Hospice
-
Airway biology
-
Assisted dying
- Relevant Article
- Find this article in its weekly table of contents
Bookmark with
What's new
Latest blogs
Services
Tools
Online poll
Resources
Rapid responses for this article
There are no rapid responses for this article.Most read
Print issues
