Most organ donation is from traumatic brain injuries resulting brain death. I have no idea how you could be in long-term hospice care and still be an organ donor, because if you're conscious and awake no one is going to do it.
No one is denying painkillers in order to produce organ donors, nor is it even practical: you would have to be on intensive life support at the time of brain death in order for it to be even considered.
EDIT: Like your statement seems to read as though your mother wanted to donate, but couldn't have voluntary euthanasia if she did (except again, if she was that awake then it wasn't going to happen unless she suffered brain death and was on life support) so your conclusion was...in the event of a sudden, traumatic brain death on your part you instead don't want organ donation to be an option?
Then I'm still confused about what happened here. If you're on life-support, and brain dead, then either you become an organ donor or they turn the machine off and you just die (because otherwise you wouldn't need to be on life support). Of course if you're brain dead, you also don't need painkillers and people who are brain dead or in a coma aren't on them.
They don't crank the painkillers up - in fact no doctor will do this because it's legally murder.
People in comas aren't on painkillers unless they're medically induced (i.e. burn victims in recovery) because the goal is for the patient to wake up. You can always push morphince once they do.
Her [sudden, at 60] stroke was massive, but confined to only her left hemisphere. She was intubated (against her DNR). Through prior agreement, this was a "terminate me" condition. She was not in hospice care at the time, and still worked 50+ hours per week. "If you make me retire [because of my health], you might as well kill me," she had recently told me.
>if you're brain dead, you don't need painkillers and ... aren't on them
False. Prior to my arrival (as pre-arranged death angel), the hospital had induced knockout via massive sedatives. My first action (before viewing the PET scan) was to stop these, which caused her right brain to "wake up" — which is terrifying because she still knew who I was (her son, there to kill her), but could not speak. Upon reviewing her imaging, I decided that "she had met her criteria [to die]."
>they turn the machine off and you just die
I further helped this by instructing attending physician to turn up the fentanyl ("to eleven"), remove her breathing systems, and then I smothered her with my bare hands.
>They don't crank the painkillers up - in fact no doctor will do this because it's legally murder.
False. See above. Jurisdiction may very, as will each situation.
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I wish you well in your enjoyment of life; Mom lived well, and you (and I) should try to, too.
> Background: I helped my mother die, and in the process decided NOT to be an organ donor anymore.
Do you distinguish between "helping to die" and "killing (with consent)"? Or is the former a nicer way to say the latter?
I ask because I think most people would be viscerally uncomfortable making a statement like, "I killed my mother," even if "at her request" was added to the statement, but the way you say "smothered her with my bare hands" suggests you might not be as uncomfortable with such a statement, so I'm curious if there's a reason you framed it that way or if you just use a variety of descriptions interchangeably.
No one is denying painkillers in order to produce organ donors, nor is it even practical: you would have to be on intensive life support at the time of brain death in order for it to be even considered.
EDIT: Like your statement seems to read as though your mother wanted to donate, but couldn't have voluntary euthanasia if she did (except again, if she was that awake then it wasn't going to happen unless she suffered brain death and was on life support) so your conclusion was...in the event of a sudden, traumatic brain death on your part you instead don't want organ donation to be an option?