Is trained communication about desire to die harmful for patients receiving palliative care? A cohort study

Background: Palliative patients frequently express a desire to die. Health professionals report uncertainty regarding potential risks of addressing it. Aim: We aim to evaluate effects of desire to die-conversations on palliative patients. Design: Within a prospective mixed-methods cohort study, we trained health professionals in dealing with desire to die. Afterwards, they held conversations about it with patients. Effects on depressiveness, hopelessness, wish to hasten death, death anxiety, patient-health professional-relationship, and will to live were evaluated at baseline (t0), 1 (t1), and 6 weeks afterwards (t2). Results were analyzed descriptively. Setting/participants: From April 2018 to March 2020, 43 health professionals asked 173 patients from all stationary and ambulatory palliative care settings (within 80 km radius) for participation. Complete assessments were obtained from n = 85 (t0), n = 64 (t1), and n = 46 (t2). Results: At t1, patients scored significantly lower on depressiveness (med = 8, M = 8.1, SD = 5.4) than at t0 (med = 9.5, M = 10.5, SD = 5.8) with Z = −3.220, p = 0.001 and Cohen’s d = 0.42. This was due to medium-severely depressed patients: At t1, their depressiveness scores decreased significantly (med = 9, M = 9.8; SD = 5.1) compared to t0 (med = 14, M = 15.2; SD = 3.9) with Z = −3.730, p ⩽ 0.000 and Cohen’s d = 1.2, but others’ did not. All other outcomes showed positive descriptive trends. Conclusions: Desire to die-conversations through trained health professionals do not harm palliative patients. Results cautiously suggest temporary improvement.

Institutional Issues

Residents with intact decision-making capacity who wish to hasten death by VSED while living in institutional long-term care (LTC) settings may encounter barriers to enacting this choice. LTC facility administrators and clinical staff must balance concerns about resident safety and moral objections to hastened death with support for resident rights and self-determination. Achieving this balance involves careful resident assessment and interdisciplinary care planning to identify and mitigate causes of suffering where possible, along with staff training regarding VSED and rigorous documentation of the care plan and interventions. Involvement of hospice may help to: (1) clarify resident goals; (2) ensure alignment between these goals and the care plan; and (3) support physical, psychosocial, and spiritual care before and during VSED. Resident-centered care planning is facilitated by using a checklist to ensure that all major issues are addressed in these complex LTC situations.

Health-related quality of life in patients with advanced cancer who express a wish to hasten death: A comparative study

Background: Some evidence suggests the wish to hasten death is related to poor health-related quality of life. Deficits in perceived dignity and self-efficacy are risk factors for wish to hasten death that also impact health-related quality of life. Aim: To compare perceived health-related quality of life, dignity and self-efficacy in patients with advanced cancer who either do (case group) or do not (control group) express a wish to hasten death. Cases and controls were matched on sociodemographic and functional characteristics. Design: A comparative cross-sectional study. Participants: A total of 153 adult patients with advanced cancer were assessed for wish to hasten death using the Desire for Death Rating Scale. Scores ⩾1 indicate some degree of wish to hasten death (case group, n = 51), and score = 0 implies no wish to hasten death (control group, n = 102). Assessments included health-related quality of life using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Core 15-Item Palliative Questionnaire, perceived loss of dignity using the Patient Dignity Inventory and self-efficacy using the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Results: Patients with a wish to hasten death had worse emotional functioning ( p < 0.001), greater perceived loss of dignity ( p < 0.001) and lower self-efficacy ( p = 0.001). There was no difference in most physical symptoms. Perceived overall health-related quality of life was significantly worse for those with a clinically relevant wish to hasten death ( p = 0.023) and marginally worse for the case group than the control group ( p = 0.052). Conclusion: Patients with wish to hasten death showed lower perceived dignity, self-efficacy and emotional quality of life than patients without wish to hasten death without necessarily perceiving worse physical symptoms.

Towards a ‘Social Anthropology’ of End-of-Life Moral Deliberation: A Study of Australian Salvation Army Officers

A research project by the Schools of Theology and Psychology of Australia’s Charles Sturt University surveyed a large sample of Salvation Army officers. This article considers survey responses to two questions relating to end-of-life care: the use of pain medications that may shorten life, and the cessation of fluid and food intake. The results of the analyses are evaluated in terms of Michael Banner’s proposal that moral theology should more assiduously converse with ‘patient ethnographic study’, which the survey instantiates to some extent. Banner’s proposal and the results of the survey are contrasted to Peter Singer’s analytical moral philosophical dictums on end-of-life care. The results are also compared to a metastudy by Andrea Rodríguez-Prat and Evert van Leeuwen of 14 ethnographic studies of those who wish to hasten death at the end of life. We conclude that respondents exemplify a form of moral reasoning that is embedded within Christian spirituality; counters the assumptions of Singer’s approach; contrasts the diminishment of ‘meaning’ at the end of life, as seen in Rodríguez-Prat and van Leeuwen; and deserves further respectful ethnographic study.

The clinical evaluation of the wish to hasten death is not upsetting for advanced cancer patients: A cross-sectional study

Background: An important concern of healthcare professionals when exploring the wish to hasten death with patients is the risk of causing them some type of distress. Aim: To assess the opinion of hospitalized patients with advanced cancer about the proactive assessment of the wish to hasten death. Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional study. Setting/participants: We assessed 193 advanced cancer patients admitted to an oncology ward for the wish to hasten death using a semi-structured clinical interview. After the assessment the participants were surveyed to determine whether they found the interview upsetting and, if so to what extent, and also their opinion regarding the assessment’s importance. Results: The wish to hasten death was reported by 46 (23.8%) patients. The majority of patients (94.8%) did not find talking about the wish to hasten death to be upsetting, regardless of whether they presented it or not. The majority of patients (79.3%) considered that it was either quite or extremely important for the clinician to proactively assess the wish to hasten death and discuss this topic, regardless of whether they experienced it. Conclusions: In this study, most of the advanced cancer patients did not find the assessment of wish to hasten death to be upsetting, and a substantial proportion of patients in this study believe that it is important to routinely evaluate it in this setting. These findings suggest that healthcare professionals can explore the wish to hasten death proactively in routine clinical practice without fear of upsetting patients.