Richard Thaler Quotes

We could keep his body going, but it was trying its hardest to die.

A lot of money is spent trying to keep people alive who don't necessarily want to be alive.

Shortly after her feeding tube is removed, Terri Schiavo receives the Catholic ceremony of last rites. Michael Schiavo stays in a room down the hall. He remains at his wife's side throughout the day, except when her immediate family comes to see Terri.

It seems sensible to me that we should look to the medical profession, that over the centuries has helped us to live longer and healthier lives, to help us die peacefully among our loved ones in our own home without a long stay in God's waiting room.

Yes, we need euthanasia, for certain cases where people are in comas or too immobile to even press a button.

Hospice has brought such a light in my life. It is something I will be involved with until I need hospice myself.

Bodily discomfort and emotional fear and attachment make the dying uncomfortable and fearful. So, to help those dying people, I think modern medical science has a lot of facilities to reduce pain, or perhaps not to reduce pain, but not to experience pain.

We have an idea - a very modern idea - that dying is undignified. But I think this is because we have the illusion that we can control our bodies and our fates.

The definition of what it means to be dying has changed radically. We are able to extend people's lives considerably, including sometimes, good days.

Life is an incurable condition: the only known treatment is to try to keep the patient comfortable.

I believe often that death is good medical treatment because it can achieve what all the medical advances and technology cannot achieve today, and that is stop the suffering of the patient.

In the last stages of a final illness, we need only the absence of pain and the presence of family.

If we include hedonistic philosophy in hospitals, the lives of patients suffering from cancer would be much, much better.

Around-the-clock support is crucial for children receiving palliative care. They and their families often need help every hour of every day, both in hospices and at home.

Hospice is such a tremendous thing. Patients seem to reach an inner peace.

Probably most dying patients, even when suffering greatly, would choose to live as long as possible. That courage and grace should be protected and honored, and we should put every effort into treating their symptoms.

My father was in terrible pain towards the end because of his bed sores, and he did go into hospice, and I think that was better in some ways. You know, I think his death was peaceful, and it was all right. He was just in terrible pain.

Americans of all ages deserve quality end-of-life medical care.

Patients who are being kept alive by technology and want to end their lives already have a recognized constitutional right to stop any and all medical interventions, from respirators to antibiotics. They do not need physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.

I accept the dying process. I would just like to be as healthy as I possibly can at each step and phase along the way.

I believe we should support people to live, and I am therefore in favour of good quality palliative care.

Hospice means end-of-life care. The admission ticket is a diagnosis from a doctor that you have six months or less to live.

Unless they've had some experience with it, the hospice is still a mystery to most people. Because hospice deals with death, people tend not to talk about it.

I hope that when the time comes, I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice.

When we, doctors, ask patients what their priorities are if time is short, what we do is we use what is available to us - whether it's geriatric care or palliative care or hospice care - to make sure they're living the kind of life that they want to live.