Having worked as a nurse in aged care for many years (believe me : that's a lot of hands held!) prior to studying to become an Occupational Therapist, I would say that the "big question" (that whether assisted death is right or wrong in an absolute moral sense) is actually much LESS important than than the way our broader society (generally) fails to adequately address the needs of it's dying people.
Most of the palliative care research I've read seems to say that people wish to die much as they have LIVED. The BIG problem is that they are not supported to do so. In the case of older people (I don't necessary limit palliative care to people with cancer or progressive neuroligical conditions) this means that they are forced to try and survive within and deal with a health system that more often than not lacks "goodness of fit" with their actual care needs - ie providing the person with the means and opportunity to explore some of (perhaps even occupational) changes that are occurring in the closing stages of life...allowing them to keep as many of those occupational patterns intact so they can live thier life a truly as is possible. hope all this makes some kind of convoluted sense! David *********��*********** Unsubscribe? Send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist ** List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] *********��***********
