Today, as a seasoned hospice nurse, I disagree with hospice s official position against assisted suicide because I still believe in the right to control one s body. Some people want help ending their lives and hospice fails them when it does not provide that choice. Make no mistake, the vast majority of my patients desperately want to live. Despite body parts that are eaten away by cancer or edema so great that swollen limbs literally weep for relief, most patients are hoping for a miracle. The patient simply prefers death to the life they are left with.
Many extended families are logistically too far away to help.
Grown children may live in distant states and cannot afford to take unpaid family leave time. Most must work full-time to keep their health care insurance and make mortgage payments. Lastly, harsh as it sounds, some families simply do not want to be caregivers. It is insulting to assume that patients who request assisted suicide are clincially depressed. Most are just realistic.