The Euthanasia Issue
I got a chance to watch the news this week because I had to make some weird adjustments to my work schedule. When I turned to CNN, I saw that the big news in the US right now is the Terri Schiavo case. After watching for a few minutes, I now also find myself in following the developments of the story.
As a backgrounder, about 10 years ago, Terri Schiavo collapsed in her home due to a mineral imbalance in her body resulting from an eating disorder. In the time that she was unconscious, her brain was deprived of oxygen long enough to result in serious brain damage. Though she managed to survive, since then she has in been in a persistent vegetative state. She can't communicate or move at all. In fact, she has been dependent on a feeding tube for her nutritional needs. For many years now, her husband and her parents have been locked in a bitter legal battle as to how long she should continue living on life support.
When I was in high school, I remember writing a paper on Euthanasia for our Religion class. It was one of the projects I really enjoyed working on because it made me realize how difficult it is to draw the line that separates us from life or death. Since there has been a lot of advances in the medical sciences in the 20th century, it is now possible to keep people alive much longer than our ancestors could. At the same time though, these life-saving devices can stretch life to the point of sacrificing the person's quality of life. In the case of my Mom, she was living on a respirator for the last week of her life. I never managed to speak to her, she barely opened her eyes and I will never find out what was actually going through her mind at that time when she was hooked up to the machine. All that time I watched over her, I kept on asking myself, "Would she have wanted this to happen to her?If I gave her the choice, would she have asked me to pull the plug instead of keeping her artificially alive and prolonging her pain?"
To begin with, it's very hard to answer questions on assisted suicide and euthanasia because we can't even define what death really is. Is it really at the point when your heart stops beating on its own? Can you say you are dead when you don't breathe anymore? In this day and age though, I think most people actually define death as when your brain stops functioning. Believe it or not, I think brain functions are the last to go when you die.
I think one of these days, I'll get a lawyer to draw up a document saying that if ever I end up in a hospital living on artificial life support, I demand that they pull the plug immediately. I don't want to be kept alive by machines. I'd choose to die with dignity and cause the least pain to the people who love me.
As a backgrounder, about 10 years ago, Terri Schiavo collapsed in her home due to a mineral imbalance in her body resulting from an eating disorder. In the time that she was unconscious, her brain was deprived of oxygen long enough to result in serious brain damage. Though she managed to survive, since then she has in been in a persistent vegetative state. She can't communicate or move at all. In fact, she has been dependent on a feeding tube for her nutritional needs. For many years now, her husband and her parents have been locked in a bitter legal battle as to how long she should continue living on life support.
When I was in high school, I remember writing a paper on Euthanasia for our Religion class. It was one of the projects I really enjoyed working on because it made me realize how difficult it is to draw the line that separates us from life or death. Since there has been a lot of advances in the medical sciences in the 20th century, it is now possible to keep people alive much longer than our ancestors could. At the same time though, these life-saving devices can stretch life to the point of sacrificing the person's quality of life. In the case of my Mom, she was living on a respirator for the last week of her life. I never managed to speak to her, she barely opened her eyes and I will never find out what was actually going through her mind at that time when she was hooked up to the machine. All that time I watched over her, I kept on asking myself, "Would she have wanted this to happen to her?If I gave her the choice, would she have asked me to pull the plug instead of keeping her artificially alive and prolonging her pain?"
To begin with, it's very hard to answer questions on assisted suicide and euthanasia because we can't even define what death really is. Is it really at the point when your heart stops beating on its own? Can you say you are dead when you don't breathe anymore? In this day and age though, I think most people actually define death as when your brain stops functioning. Believe it or not, I think brain functions are the last to go when you die.
I think one of these days, I'll get a lawyer to draw up a document saying that if ever I end up in a hospital living on artificial life support, I demand that they pull the plug immediately. I don't want to be kept alive by machines. I'd choose to die with dignity and cause the least pain to the people who love me.
posted by wilgefortis @ 7:09 AM
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