Let me die
Ailing British teen refuses heart transplant
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London (Nov 12, 08): Hannah Jones, 13, is not afraid of dying — she is afraid of spending her remaining days in a hospital bed.
In a case that raises a host of medical and ethical issues, the British teenager from a small town northwest of London has won a battle to refuse a heart transplant operation.
That decision by British medical authorities has ignited a debate over whether children should have the right to refuse potentially life-saving medical treatments or if health authorities have an obligation to intervene.
Hannah, from Marden, 145 miles (233 kilometers) from London, was diagnosed with leukemia at age four. Doctors later found a heart defect. In eight years, she has had chemotherapy and nearly a dozen operations. "I've been in hospital too much — I've had too much trauma," she told Sky News on Tuesday.
Hannah's story surfaced when her parents complained about medical officials who threatened to force her into a hospital.
"They phoned us on a Friday evening and said that if we didn't take her in they'd come and take her. We still refused to take her," said her mother, Mrs Kirsty Jones.
A social worker was then sent to interview the teenager about her refusal to have a heart transplant to treat her cardiomyopathy, a serious disease where the heart muscle becomes swollen and sometimes fails. The social worker backed Hannah's decision.
In Britain, children younger than 16 aren't automatically considered legally competent to make decisions about their health care. Still, British courts have said that a child's decision can be valid if they have "sufficient understanding and intelligence to enable him or her to understand fully what is proposed".
- Time.com
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Coincidentally, Singaporeans have been debating our country's
Advanced Medical Directive Act, which allows a person sign a legal document to inform his doctor that he does not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment, in the event he becomes terminally ill and unconscious.
Even though the AMD was passed into law in 1996, only 10,000 people — out of a population of 4 million — have signed such a document in the past 12 years. So, it seems that the majority of Singaporeans see no need for the AMD.
However, Singapore's health minister
believes otherwise. Based on feedback he has received, and from the personal experience of his wife, who agrees with the philosophy behind the AMD but hasn't yet signed one, he concluded that there are other factors holding people back.
Namely, the moral objection to what seems, at first blush, to be legal support for euthanasia.
Archbishop says NO to euthanasia
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Singapore (Nov 3, 08): Archbishop Nicholas Chia read out a special message to all Catholic churches on Sunday.
In his letter, Archbishop Chia came out publicly to condemn the practice of euthanasia or mercy killing.
This has been a hot topic making waves in local media recently with discussions of changes made to the Advanced Medical Directive, or living will, which has been seen by some as condoning the act of euthanasia.
- The Straits Times
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