Euthanasia

[pablozabaleta]

people visit here and talk to her but she cant respond so no-one knows if she can hear them or even if she knows who they are.

That is a grey area for me. If she can't respond, then how do you know if she would be happier to be put to rest? It's such a hard topic with so many ethical issues, feel for your friend

 

[steve4666]

In the hospital I work in, patients who are seriously ill but have the competency to comprehend the gravity of the situation they are in, have the option to sign a 'no resuscitation' declaration. Most do, presumably because they accept that things aren't going to get much better. The 'dubious' part I suppose is when the patient isn't mentally able to make that kind of decision, and relatives try to enforce their views on doctors, for the right reasons or not. Good doctors take the patients requests as paramount. Good doctors take all their expertise into a prognosis of their patients into account. Excellent doctors can ignore pressure from distraught family to save the unsaveable. Excellent doctors can also do their best to save anyone with half a chance, and they do, believe me, they literally perform miracles everyday!!. Please, leave it up to the doc's, they do actually know what their doin :-)

 

[Rocket-footed kolarov]

In the hospital I work in, patients who are seriously ill but have the competency to comprehend the gravity of the situation they are in, have the option to sign a 'no resuscitation' declaration. Most do, presumably because they accept that things aren't going to get much better. The 'dubious' part I suppose is when the patient isn't mentally able to make that kind of decision, and relatives try to enforce their views on doctors, for the right reasons or not. Good doctors take the patients requests as paramount. Good doctors take all their expertise into a prognosis of their patients into account. Excellent doctors can ignore pressure from distraught family to save the unsaveable. Excellent doctors can also do their best to save anyone with half a chance, and they do, believe me, they literally perform miracles everyday!!. Please, leave it up to the doc's, they do actually know what their doin :-)

I would agree with it if the patient is able to consent like Tony Nicklinson however if they can't then I suppose then active euthanasia shouldn't be allowed even with families permission.

 

[morleyswife]

One of the questions that will always divide and never be correct. It's an impossible question.

I would leave it to the closest people to them. Who loved them. The problem you have (with my idea) is the person who wants them dead could also gain from the death

Like I say impossible question
Abortion being another in reverse

 

[mat]

Don't worry peeps when the tories win the next election it will be compulsory for anyone over 55 and are on benefits or earn less than £25,000 a year.

 

[Rocket-footed kolarov]

One of the questions that will always divide and never be correct. It's an impossible question.

I would leave it to the closest people to them. Who loved them. The problem you have (with my idea) is the person who wants them dead could also gain from the death

Like I say impossible question
Abortion being another in reverse

Fair point. I agree with the first para but not the last. Abortion has to be legal because the risk when it is not is greater; backstreet abortions and deaths of pregnant mothers but for Euthanasia the risk is on par. Death may occur illegally but the circumstances won't be worse than had it occurred legally, and of course the state has a vested interest not having legal euthanasia because it may legitimize murder but that is not so for Abortion (in its current legal form).

 

[Pelly Greeny]

Time to bring something in whereby you can go to your doctor or a specially trained advisor and discuss what you would like to happen to you in the event of certain situations.

You then tick boxes and sign a form after having had an unbiased and informed explanation of everything.


Goes on you records and it's all sorted.


Just hope you don't have something they need to transplant to a friend when you're borderline.

 

[Mike D]

A friend of mines Mother had a stroke in 2004 where she was completely paralysed, cant speak and can only mover her eyes, since then she has spent everyday (for 9 years) in hospital in a bed being fed liquids through a tube, people visit here and talk to her but she cant respond so no-one knows if she can hear them or even if she knows who they are.
Her quality of life is pretty grim, god knows (if she is aware in her mind) what she must think about for 24 hours a day, it would seem to me to be a form of torture and a horrible way to spend the last years of your life.
No-one knows how long she will live, maybe another 9 years ??
My friend is bereft that her Mother is in this condition, it is a kind of torture for her too.

My question is, should the doctors (with next of kin consent) be able to end her life with an injection and put an end to this misery ?

Yes and I think that like people carry donorcards they should be able to carry euthenasia cards.

 

[metalblue]

No, they should not.

I don't think it is either fair or realistic to expect a doctor to pronounce that somebody's quality of life is so poor that it should be extinguished. And if they are the sort of doctors who feel that they have the right to sentence a patient to death on the basis that his patient's life is not worth living, I wouldn't want them as my mother/father's doctor anyway. None of this is to say that the withdrawal of medical treatment is wrong, but that is very different from the scenario in the OP.

Also, the prospect of the power being abused where tasty inheritances are being delayed is all too real. There is much more that could be said, but I will stop there.

Surely removal of the treatment would result in a painful and prolonged death through dehydration and that a painless injection of morphine would be a more humanitarian way to go?

Surprisingly artificial hydration and nutrition are not medical treatments (by definition). But what we all know is that in the absense of illness, by withdrawing ANH, the patient will die of dehydration as a result of withdrawal. It is not fair to ask a healthcare professional to make that decision, which is why patients like the OP's who are in a persistent vegetive state can only have a court permit the withdrawal of ANH.

Broadly speaking healthcare professionals have an overriding duty to do no harm but they also have to do what is in the patients best interests, these are sometimes very difficult to reconcile with many falling back on the theory that being dead can never be considered as being in the patients best interests.

It's an insanely complex subject.

 

[Martyn]

Just thought I'd bump this as the debate seems to be a hot topic at the moment.

I'm all for it but it needs to red taped to fuck to stop people taking the piss.