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Kazoo: does the fact that according to the news story the parents aren't even thinking in terms of a cure, but just to delay the inevitable for a few months make any difference to your thinking?
If I'm driving down the highway and my oil light goes on, I could keep driving, thinking that god always has the ability to make a miracle and keep my engine running with out damage, but I think I'm going to stick with the known facts and pull over.
Having read the article, I can sort of see the parents' point. I say "sort of" b/c I have mixed feelings. They say they want the trach tube so he can die at home. It's hard to tell from this article just how unresponsive the child is. The parents also had another child die of this disease (doesn't say what it is). It's tough.
My final act of love, if I were his parent, would be to help that baby cross over to the other side as quickly and with as little suffering as possible. I would not let him linger one more day.
Morally, I feel strongly that our obligation to the people we love is to help them have a decent death as well as a decent life, if we in any way can. We can't beat death, but we can minimize suffering and help to maintain dignity.
I hate to bring politics into this, but this one scenario reminds me of why I was soo outraged at Palin's comments about how Obama wants to pull the plug on grandma (paraphrase).
That was such a horrible, deceiving interpretation. We all should have a living will to avoid being kept alive on a ventilator (or to choose that we, in fact, do want that).
We keep people going for years in a vegetative state, for hundreds of thousands, when most people, if they could express their feelings would probably NOT want that.
There are many reasons I dislike Sarah Palin, but her mischaracterization of the intent of having a living will still tops my list.
Kazoo: does the fact that according to the news story the parents aren't even thinking in terms of a cure, but just to delay the inevitable for a few months make any difference to your thinking?
Not really. Life is life. It would be worth it to extend his life another minute, much less another few months. If he dies, he dies, but refusing to treat him is an intentional killing.
My final act of love, if I were his parent, would be to help that baby cross over to the other side as quickly and with as little suffering as possible. I would not let him linger one more day.
Morally, I feel strongly that our obligation to the people we love is to help them have a decent death as well as a decent life, if we in any way can. We can't beat death, but we can minimize suffering and help to maintain dignity.
I hate to bring politics into this, but this one scenario reminds me of why I was soo outraged at Palin's comments about how Obama wants to pull the plug on grandma (paraphrase).
That was such a horrible, deceiving interpretation. We all should have a living will to avoid being kept alive on a ventilator (or to choose that we, in fact, do want that).
We keep people going for years in a vegetative state, for hundreds of thousands, when most people, if they could express their feelings would probably NOT want that.
There are many reasons I dislike Sarah Palin, but her mischaracterization of the intent of having a living will still tops my list.
Really, you do not see the difference between the goverment making the choice to "pull the plug" rather than the family based on medical advice???
If it makes any difference to you when my hubby was hurt on a hunt in Alaska, Palin sat with him until I could get there.
The kid is 13 months old. He hasn't lived nearly long enough. If he were my kid, I'd keep him hooked up to life support for decades, hoping they develop a cure for his condition.
Euthanasia is evil. Any kind of life is better than death. There is nothing worse than dying . . . nothing. I'd be willing to go to heroic lengths to save a life, especially a child. No one should have to experience the horrors of death, especially not a small child.
That would be just as cruel. He is a terminally ill child. And the quality of his life would be what just to keep him around and have him suffer. That is not a way too live for this baby, is it. As much as i love my baby, and would hate to lose him, to keep him around, in this terminal condition, is just as cruel. It is so sad, to have to say good by to this baby, but just as mean, to keep in around, in a termianlly ill condition.
Yes it is heart wrenching, to have to see your child die, or your baby, but is it fair to that child, to keep him around in a terminal condition, where the quality of life, will never be what it should.
I haven't read through the whole thread. I believe the child should be disconnected and provided with pallitive (?) care. I have a child who died. I know of a child that had luekemia and received treatment for approximately 3 years, all at the expense of the taxpayer. I agree with that. But, in the last crisis, he was on a ventilator and brain dead for some time and the mother could not let go. She kept him on the vent for a couple of months. I thought about the many children who might have received care with the money that was used in caring for this child in a vegetative state.
I grieve for this child and all the children who die so young but, that is life. I believe we have to accept the fact of certain death at some time in our lives and prepare for it. I also believe in going as far as we can to save a person, if they desire that but, when the person becomes brain dead, what is gained ?
When my child died, it was after a long illness. She suffered greatly. When she died, I knew she was free from pain forever more and I was at peace.
Not really. Life is life. It would be worth it to extend his life another minute, much less another few months. If he dies, he dies, but refusing to treat him is an intentional killing.
Really, you do not see the difference between the goverment making the choice to "pull the plug" rather than the family based on medical advice???
If it makes any difference to you when my hubby was hurt on a hunt in Alaska Palin sat with him until I could get there.
There never was anything that stated that the government got to make this decision. Of course, as it stands, insurance companies decide when to terminate treatment all the time. When you max out your lifetime cap or your yearly cap, your finished. Even if you're not terminally ill. That does smell of death panels, doesn't it?
Meanwhile, Obama was trying to mandate that everyone be presented with an end of life questionnaire. They were free to write that they would like medical care to continue at all costs, if that's what they wanted. Or, conversely, they could spell out what they did not want. Also, there would no longer be lifetime or yearly caps on any medical condition. Is this advocating pulling the plug on grandma, or was that an intentional gross mischaracterization by Palin?
So, in our attempt to bring down skyrocketing medical costs, isn't this a sensible step to avoid spending millions keeping people alive in a vegetative state, who do not want that? As medical advances continue to improve, more people will be able to be kept "alive" with no quality of life.
Canadian boy moved to US over end-of-life dispute | US National Headlines | Comcast.net (http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20110314/US.Canadian.Boy.End.of.Life.Dispute/ - broken link)
ST. LOUIS — A Canadian couple transferred their terminally ill toddler son to a Catholic hospital in St. Louis after an Ontario court ruled that doctors could remove the breathing tube keeping the boy alive.
Thirteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli arrived at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital on Sunday after the hospital agreed to treat the boy. The hospital issued a statement Monday saying Joseph arrived in serious but stable condition and was being evaluated by doctors there.
The parents are not doing the kid or themselves any favors by forcing the continuation of the suffering. The kid is in permanent vegetative state and there is simply no cure, so to keep him alive by use of machines makes no sense.
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