The following proposed policy statement
is not the official statement of any actual hospice program.
If any reader knows of any hospice
that offers the full range of end-of-life choices
that are legal within that jurisdiction,
please send that information to the e-mail address at the end.
The following proposed policy statement
does not represent the views of any existing organization.


FULL-SPECTRUM HOSPICE

POLICY STATEMENT ON
END-OF-LIFE OPTIONS


"The Good Death Hospice Program encourages and supports patients
in exercising the full range of legal medical options at the end of life.

[Special provision for Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, & Colorado, USA:
This includes taking advantage of this state's right-to-die legislation,
which allow terminally-ill patients to obtain and use
a gentle poison that will bring a peaceful and painless death.]

No patient is ever required to use any particular method of drawing life to a close.

    The legal, doctor-approved pathways towards death include:

(1) increasing pain medication to whatever level seems appropriate for the patient;

(2) beginning terminal sedation, which will keep the patient unconscious until death.
This pathway usually includes giving up food and water provided by any means;

(3) termination of all curative treatments and life-support systems;

(4) voluntary terminal dehydration.
Giving up all liquids except those needed for comfort care
can be chosen first by the patient and later continued by proxies for the patient."

    If you would like to read an on-line essay explaining these four options, see:
"Four Medical Methods of Managing Dying":
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/CY-L-END.html
This chapter includes estimates of how often each pathway is used.

{This proposed language was created by James Park in December 2006,
posted 12-9-2006, revised 12-14-2006;  12-19-2006; 3-23-2007; 9-22-2007; 11-22-2008; 10-17-2009;
10-19-2012; 10-20-2012; 12-7-2012; 5-20-2014; 2-20-2018;}

    Please send suggestions for further revision to:
James Park, e-mail:
PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU


Methods of Choosing Death
in a Right-to-Die Hospice
We can choose our pathways towards death
using any combination of these methods of dying.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/METHODS.html


Safeguards for Making Life-Ending Decisions
in a Right-to-Die Hospice Program
How the 26 recommended safeguards for life-ending decisions
might be applied in a right-to-die hospice
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/HOS-SG.html


The Good Death Hospice
The basic proposal for creating right-to-die hospices.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/GDH.html


The Hospice Cooperation Project
Encouraging better coordination between
the traditional hospice movement and the right-to-die movement.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/HOSPICE.html


How to Die:
Safeguards for Life-Ending Decisions
This on-line book explores all 26 recommended safeguards.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/HTD.html


Portal for the Right-to-Die
leading in other new directions
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/P-RTD.html

Go to the beginning of this website
James Leonard Park—Free Library