The job of hospice is to help people suffer less as they die... whatever it takes. They mercifully do for human beings what vets do all the time for our pets, but is still illegal for humans. It's the right thing to do.

My husband was in hospice care for a year before he died. I don't believe hospices intentionally kill. I believe they allow death to occur. They do this by removing the pharma which simply prolongs life with no care as to the quality of it. I would not have retained any sanity if I had tried to care for him at home, pumping him full of drugs that no longer were effective.

Another crazy conspiracy theory. Hospice staff do not intentionally kill people.

Your husband died because he was dying. I'm sorry for your loss.

Mayo Clinic

"Hospice care is for people who are nearing the end of life. The services are provided by a team of health care professionals who maximize comfort for a person who is terminally ill by reducing pain and addressing physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs. To help families, hospice care also provides counseling, respite care and practical support.

"Unlike other medical care, the focus of hospice care isn't to cure the underlying disease. The goal is to support the highest quality of life possible for whatever time remains."

[mayoclinic.org]

I have nothing but good things to say about Hospice. They are there to allow people to die with peace and dignity, not prolong suffering and pain. Chances are your husband would not have lived a day more had you kept him at home. And given what you say, he may have taken you with him by burning down the house. It sounds like you were supportive to the end, be at peace with yourself and your decisions.

They don't mom was in one, compassionate people

My father had four different kinds of cancer when he was finally diagnosed. I remember talking to him, and he kept telling me he was in severe pain and nothing was helping. I asked him if he was on the fentanyl patch and he told me no because he didn't want to be an addict. I replied "Dad, you're dying (he knew he was). Having relief is more important." He got the patch.

The hospital recommended hospice, however my step-mother kept vetoing it, opting for prayer. Us kids finally had enough and demanded it (my brother had power of attorney). My brother was three hours into a five hour drive to his house to enforce hospice when my dad died.

I personally believe that my father may not have lived longer, but he would have had a better quality of life if his wife would have allowed hospice. As it was, he died in pain, confused, and without his children as he wife refused to allow any of us to visit. I will never forgive that woman for what she did to my father.

My dad was in Hospice care. I removed him from the hospital, amd took 2 months off of work when I put him in Hospice care at my home. They were WONDERFUL! He died at home, and was coherent and pain free almost two the end. All Hospice is divergent, but mine was superb. I still Sunday to them, 8 years after the fact.

A good friend of mine was in hospice at the end of a bad scene with a brain tumor. I miss her big time.

While hanging out there one day, I got to speak to one of the care nurses. She admitted that when people are in constant pain, they "float" them out with morphine and other drugs. I would certainly want that for myself - if I was in that position. The nurses adjust dosages according to level of suffering.

So, in a way, you could say yes, they are doing this with intention. But just because we can keep bodies going, almost indefinitely, doesn't mean anyone deserves suffering up to their last breath.

I was so impressed with the level of genuine caring displayed by everyone who worked at the hospice - they serve a real need !

What EVIDENCE do you have that they are intentionally killing people?

Hospices provide end of life care and are experts In palliative treatments. I do not think they intentionally kill people, but the very nature of the hospice concept means that their patients do die. They ease the passage of patients who are at the end of life, where no further treatment is advisable, and the outcome is that death will come. The doctors, nurses and carers who staff any of the hospices I have had experience with are extremely caring and mindful of both patient and family members, remembering that their patients never recover, nobody leaves a hospice to make a recovery at home. It is a hard choice for a doctor or nurse to make to go into palliative/end of life care, for the very reason I have stated, they always lose their patients, and it takes a certain type of personality and empathetic nature to deal with this. My husband and both of my parents-in- law spent their last few days in hospices and I am full of admiration and gratitude for the dedicated care they received, and above all the alleviation of their pain by palliative pain relief. I was pleased that my husbands death was quicker than it may otherwise have been, by the increasing levels of opiates which he received in his last 48 hours, I just wanted him to no longer feel the excruciating pain, and for that will always be grateful to the hospice staff.

I'm sure that they don't kill patients intentionally. Visited a number of friends in hospice, had a very good impression. Patients in a hospice are heavily medicated in order to minimize suffering. You did the right thing to help your husband to suffer less!

More people need to realize that quality of life is a very important consideration. IF I were terminally ill and in constant agony, I would absolutely want to be dead. There would be no point for me in continuing my life any further at all. I agree that sometimes the right thing to do is to let terminally ill people end their suffering.

This sounds like disoriented thinking. Hospices provide care for the dying with minimum pain and maximum dignity.

Intentional killing of the dying is not part of the agenda

Why oh why would anybody want to keep someone alive if they are suffering, after all we put animals down who are in pain.

Life kills people.

I was a Hospice RN for 6 years and I heard the same misconception.
Death was not hastened, it was eased. Quality of life was stressed, keeping a patient comfortable, supporting patient and family. We had a formula for increases in narcotics, and overseen by doctors. Nobody was euthanized or ‘assisted’ to die.

That used to be my interpretation of what hospice does also... But it is incorrect.

Hospice is simply not going back to the hospital for your care and you sign a slip stating that you will not seek treatment at a hospital again. Now, for a lot of people this may mean going home to die... But I have seen and heard of people that can go a few years in hospice.

It may vary by state... But in Virginia, Hospice can be in the hospital, a hospice center or in your home. Except for rare instances, all drugs are taken orally. No IVs except for rare instances to be administered by a hospice nurse.

But to your point... Yes, another thing hospice does is to make it an easier transition to death. We were setting up hospice care for my mom in my home when she passed in the hospital before she could get back here. I was to receive a cocktail of morphine to give her to help her breathe easier. Yes, morphine inhibits breathing in larger doses, but in smaller doses it relaxes the person to help the breathe more deeply... Something I found out through all of this.

Its the way I'll choose to go. Gimme the morphine and dilaudid baby!

It's my understanding that they do nothing to prolong the death, but make the inevitable death a more comfortable transition.

My experience is the opposite. My father in law was in a hospice and they took great care of him. Hospices are to help the person to transition into death. They do not give transfusions or other medical means to prolong life. If one is in a hospice the idea is to pass as peacefully and lovingly as possible.

I don't think they kill anyone... I think they take on people that are on the brink of death already and had he not gone to hospice he would have died somewhere else.... my mother was on a waiting list to get into hospice and she was at a hospital and she died there.... had she been admitted into a hospice she would have died there instead.... this line of thinking is some paranoia and unless we have some evidence that hospice workers are actively killing patients, I would shut down that thought.

I can’t speak for all hospices or even for any one hospice. But I know that the intention is to discontinue all treatments and provide only palliative care. Palliative care consists only of providing comfort measures while allowing to patient to die a natural death. Things like food (if tolerated), treatment for pain, emotional support, etc. if it is non-secular then I suppose they provide spiritual care as well. In order to enter hospice one must have discontinue things like chemo, surgery, antibiotics etc.

I would approve of mercy killing if there is absolutely no hope of an end to a person's misery.

Death is not easy. I'm still not over my father's passing, and that was in 1960.....I was 8 years old........and people are dying all around me now. All I know is i had back surgery, they hit the same disc 4 times before it took. I was in a nursing home 3 times and I don't want to go back to a nursing home. There are worse things than death. When it's time to go, it's time to go. If you think this place is the end of the journey, you're in for a big surprise. Happy landing. What you believe has nothing to do with "IT"......the moon and stars don't care what you believe. Organzed religions are all full of shit, but the Universe is still kicking.
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In principle, hospices will take care of people on their older days. If they provide good quality service, people who spend their last days there will have a peaceful passing away. That's what I think it comes to.

to respond,the Hospice took over the dying person,they knew that that person was dying beforehand