Venting Even for Health Care Workers (HCW), benevolent paternalism exists

[TAW122]

When I was looking at advance directives for people who are generally in good health and young, I stumbled upon (no surprise!) some other users telling even their own people to "seek help". It is quite infuriating that even when it comes to having one's wishes being outlined or detailed, they are met with unwanted benevolent paternalism.

In the Reddit thread linked here, see the comment here made by u/terraphantm with regards to the comment that u/Thraxeth made. (Quoted below)

u/Thraxeth said in reply to u/slicermd:
Yes?

I'm not particularly attached to my life as it is. Death doesn't scare me, being tortured does. And the ICU "care" I provide is torture.

u/terraphantm responds with:

That sounds like a reason to seek therapy tbh. Of the patients you take care of in the ICU, what proportion are young otherwise healthy people? In the spectrum of things that land those type of people in the ICU, a decent chunk are things that are rapidly reversible and then can be transferred to the floors in a day or two of monitoring and ultimately go on to live decades with no issues.

In short, it is infuriating that even in the healthcare industry, there are pro-lifers who even infantilize and talk down to those who don't share their views. It is gatekeeping at it's worst and again, there is no surprise that this happens even for people whose predicament (while not terminal or permanent) are still being gatekept to such a degree. I just know that if I was a patient and my wishes are not being respected and being gatekept by people considered "professionals" and having to endure unnecessary suffering, I know I will definitely take action against them, legally or otherwise. The fact that people use psych and therapy as justification and pretext to dismiss others' issues is just downright disrespectful and despicable.

At the end of the day, the ultimate right to die should be for anyone for any reason and shouldn't be heavily gatekept (even then sadly it is). One of the worst health circumstances to be in is where one is suffering greatly, but still haven't met the subjective "professionally accepted" threshold (set by medical professionals) to be able to have a graceful exit or even allow natural (passive) death to take it's course.

 

[TAW122]

Bumping this thread as I think it has been buried. Additionally, I do want to add that sometimes I wished I lived in a country where voluntary euthanasia is more accepted, such as Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium to name a few. Because at least, there are more doctors and healthcare professionals who are willing to respect and accept a patient's wishes.