Reply to The Pitt, Season 2

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]two comments on last night's show

I am so wary that the Becca's "BF" is a worker at her home and is taking advantage of her, and she doesn't understand the difference.

Roxie's situation feels a lot like assisted suicide. "We can keep giving you morphine, but you may stop breathing. You want more? OK, but you may stop breathing." I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but that's just how it's coming off to me. It is not legal in Pennsylvania (according to Google, at least).  And I agree with the comments about too many staff members seem to be actively involved, given all the crises of the day. Has anyone even attempted to get her admitted to a hospice/palliative care bed? (Maybe so and I forgot.)
[/quote]

Will gently disagree with both these takes.

While it's possible Becca's boyfriend is a worker at her daycare, I think it's much more likely that Becca and another patient at the daycare, likely with similar IDs, have developed a romance. This is a known issue at these kind of facilities and it's something staff, patients, and patient families have to figure out because of all the health and responsibility implications. These are adults with functioning reproductive systems -- they get sexual urges like anyone does and sometimes they act on them. There's this balance between respecting their autonomy as people and also recognizing the minefield of problems that can arise from this sort of thing. People IDs have relationships though. Some even get married and some even have kids of their own. It's very, very complicated for their caretakers, whether you are talking about a professional facility like Becca is in or the family caregivers like Mel. I think the show is just acknowledging this reality, which many people with an intellectually disabled adult family member need to deal with.

Roxy's situation is legally complex but there is a clear line: if you give a patient a high dose of morphine with the intent of ending their life, that's euthanasia and yes, it's illegal in PA. However, giving high doses of morphine or other pain meds as palliative care to relieve pain in terminal patients is totally legal, [I]as long as it is done with the intent only to relieve pain, not to end their life.[I] There is no question that McKay is not trying to kill Roxy. She is giving her morphine to ease her suffering. Roxy has been informed of the risks to her life of upping her dose, and her entire family is there and they are accepting it because they too want to ease her pain. No one wants her to die. But she's going to, one way or another. The very least her doctors can do for her at this point is provide medication to make that death less painful. This might seem like semantics to you, but it is legal semantics that make the difference between assisted suicide and palliative care. What Roxy is doing is legal.[/quote]

I just think about how long my grandma lingered in total agony when she was dying of cancer and the doctors refused to give her more morphine.  I wish the doctors had helped her like they helped Roxie.[/quote]

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