• I believe it is a moral duty to provide comfort for the suffering.
• About twenty years ago my Father was dying of metastatic colon cancer spread to bone. Dad was one of those unusual cases in which meds were simply inadequate for his unrelenting pain. Either he was totally unconscious, or awake and very uncomfortable. There seemed no helpful in-between, and too often pain meds brought wild and scary dreams, caused him to be combative, and frightened him and all us involved. I should add here, we do better now-a-days.
• Mom called me one evening and warned that Dad was talking about driving into a bridge abutment. Then she handed him the phone and I pleaded with him not to do such a thing. "I will talk with your doctor and find a better pain reliever," I said. "How can I get relief, and how will this end?" he replied. I explained in cases like his, people often develop pneumonia, and since he directed us not to use antibiotics,

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