Patient-Assisted Suicide Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

As one who often cares
for people
who suffer from
some terminal diseases
such as
leukaemia or myeloma,
who gets involved
in hushed discussions
with patients
and relatives
about
the end of life and
how it should be
managed......

I'm very sad
that I am being asked,
just now and then,
to help end a life,
and feel that
if the law
were changed
this would destroy,
forever
the trust
I now enjoy
with human beings
such as these.

A quest for help
with ending
their own life,
takes away forever
any doctor- patient relationship
For the worse.
It spells
the end of it..

Each patient
with a ‘final illness’
or even
a chronic disabling one
like cancer,
heart attack,
Alzheimer's
begins to
feel the pressure
to request this
euthanasia,
which is suicide’
assisted by the patient,
perhaps
in the coercive hope
of ending
a noticeable burden
on family,
perhaps society,
by not continuing
to be around.

Many will begin
to wonder whether
they should talk about
this euthanasia.
Oh, the pressure,
to do what's 'fair '.
And is it good enough
to say that
there will be
the safeguard of
two doctors,
a cooling off,
and prayer,
consultation?

Yes, we need
better dying
in today's world.
After all,
we deserve better
than our forefathers.
Or do we?

A better death
can be achieved,
not by
the building of
hospices,
improved palliative care,
more qualified staff,
education of all,
but by the provision of
narcotics to make,
as the song says,
the pain go away.

There is no need
for euthanasia,
for suicide,
for that nudge
that is good for all concerned,
and most of all,
to end the suffering.

Death,
you are the enemy,
no doctor ever should
consider fraternising
with you,
the helping hand
that you require
must come from
either God
or on the other side
from El Diablo.
Only those two
can be exempt
from being
murderers.