Modern medicine almost refuses to let a patient die. Elaborate
operations are performed on him, he is connected to all kinds of
machines which do the job of failed organs, tubes are inserted into him
to feed, to give blood and to remove wastes, and newer and evermore
potent medicines are poured into him to keep him alive. Most specialist
doctors who deal with terminally ill patients prescribe these
interventions and drugs. But do these expert doctors want the same
life-prolonging treatment when they themselves are terminally ill?
A recent article "How Doctors Choose To Die" written by Dr. Ken
Murray, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern
California, published first in and then reprinted in many newspapers worldwide gives the surprising
answer "No" to this question. Doctors across the US and UK have
responded to his provocative article and most seem to agree with him
that the best death is the least medicated. They generally feel that the
quality of life is more important than the quantity. But they seem to
be uncomfortable with the dichotomy in their thinking.
Dr. Murray poses the interesting question "How has it come to
this, that doctors administer so much care that they wouldn't want for
themselves?" and answers it by holding the patients, the doctors and the
system responsible, the patients because they expect too much from
medical science, the doctors because they fail to present only
reasonable options to the patient or his family, and the system because
it threatens doctors for doing too little and never for doing too much.
The stress of facing constantly the dichotomy of administering
expensive medical care which is ultimately futile and which makes people
suffer and being against such treatment if they themselves were the
patients is, according to Dr. Murray, one of the reasons why physicians
have higher rates of alcohol abuse and depression than professionals in
most other fields.
B.V. Shenoy, Mysore Grahakara Parishat