LIVING OPTIONS FOR THE DYING
Beth Spring
January 1, 1989
With the widely documented "graying of America," increasingly families wrestle with how to care for a terminally ill loved one. Pastors, who have long offered counsel and comfort to the sick and dying (and their families), find themselves asked questions such as:
How can we make Mom's (or Dad's) last days comfortable? How can we afford the staggering medical costs? Do we have an obligation to keep her at home? Mom's in pain and wants to "go home." What should we do?
Beth Spring, a contributing editor of Christianity Today and with Ed Larson the co-author of Euthanasia: Spiritual, Medical, and Legal Issues in Terminal Health Care, identifies the family's options and the pros and cons of each from a financial, practical, and spiritual perspective.
Hewlett Robinson faced a dilemma. His father, William Paul, was dying of prostate cancer. The doctors told Hewlett they had done everything they could to treat his father. "How do you plan to provide for him after he is released?" they asked.
Hewlett was certain of the answer: he lived next door to his parents, and he and his wife were ready to care for his father at his home.
After several weeks, Hewlett, an only child, was having second thoughts. "I found I had taken on more than I had bargained for. I was at my wit's end," he recalls. He hired a nurse to come in three times a week. As the cancer spread and his father's condition deteriorated, Hewlett changed the bedding three times each day and bathed his father. His wife prepared meals for both her in-laws. They felt obligated to have someone with him twenty-four hours a day. The task became exhausting.
Finally, a neighbor told them about an option they had not heard of before-inpatient care at a hospice. The family agreed to admit ...
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