Means you're a nice person for even considering it. I don't mean that as a passing whatever comment.
When my mum was in her last few days I was booked in for surgery and while I thought about moving my surgery back and flying to the UK to be with her, husband and I decided that whether it be selfish or not that the outcome was going to be the same either way.
Thankfully with her, it was brain cancer so she really had no clue what was going on and we didn't tell her I had breast cancer because she had enough on her plate knowing she was going to die any day soon.
As it turns out, my cancer moved one stage up to a little bit more serious between diagnosis and surgery so I made the right call not jumping on the next plane back home.
But still, full circle to your point. It's useless unless you've really fucking hurt someone, and you really haven't.