As a long-time RN, I’ve seen a lot of peaceful, mostly painless deaths due to the wonderful skills and services of hospice and palliative care.But I’ve also seen too many others where patients’ pain and suffering are prolonged, causing needless pain.
Opinion: Massachusetts nurses support passing death with dignity bill
Telegram & Gazette
As both active and retired registered nurses, we are among the 70% of Massachusetts citizens according to a recent poll by the Boston Globe and Suffolk University who support legalizing the option of medical aid in dying for people who are terminally ill and mentally capable of making their own end-of-life health-care decisions.
We support passing The End of Life Options Act (House Bill #4782, Senate Bill #2745) because we’ve cared for terminally ill patients for a cumulative total of nearly 200 years, and seen too many leave this world in severe pain and often prolonged, unrelieved suffering.