eli5: Patients in hospice care are often unconscious due to high doses of sedative drugs, and are given no intravenous fluids, which leads to death by dehydration. Why is this done? Is there any difference between this and physician-assisted suicide?
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This is sadly a common misconception about hospice, and often prevents people from seeking hospice care when they could have greatly benefited from it. Misinformation such as this can also cause surviving family members to feel guilt or responsibility for the death of their loved one because they happened to be the one administering medication to keep that person from suffering. Others have already explained why this is wrong so I won’t repeat the information already given. I just want you or anyone else who reads this to know that hospice care is never intended to shorten someone’s life expectancy, neither is it intended to extend life for the sole purpose of keeping the heart beating. It is all about maximizing the quality of life for however long that person has, along with providing support and education to the patient’s caregivers so that they have a better understanding of what is happening and how to care for a person that is dying.
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