I believe I've already stated my stand:
Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf
In Hannah's case, what if the heart transplant fails to cure her? More years spent in hospital, instead of living life as normally as she can. Tough luck, huh? What gives me the right to decide for (her)? Or worse, to force (her) to accept my decision?
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However, I'm concerned that the "pro-natural death" camp is — ironically — being too close-minded to understand why there are very strong concerns against taking such a stand.
To reiterate what Dr Rosalie Shaw said:
"When people ask to die, what they really mean is, 'Do you know how difficult this is?' As their bodies break down, they hope that they will not linger long, but they don't expect doctors to do anything but listen."
Dr Shaw does not confuse euthanasia with a living will, but she does, on the other hand, highlight some very important concerns:
1) How do caregivers know when they haven't tried hard enough to persuade a terminally-ill patient to continue the fight to stay alive?
2) How do we know for sure when the resignation to death is not, in fact, a cry for help? In other words, are we really sure that the patient fully understands his choice? Have we, the caregivers, truly heard what he was actually asking for?
Signing a living will does not mean condoning assisted suicide. However, it's not very hard to see the potential moral equivalence. For people who fervently believe that life is sacred, letting someone die when you have the means to potentially save him is only one step removed from actually killing him with your own hands.
By all means, we should respect an individual's right to choose death with dignity. For such people, palliative care is vital.
But again, as Dr Shaw noted, different people react to impending death in different ways. For some people, it could well be that they have lost hope because there is no one around to support them through the pain, to make it worthwhile to stay alive, just a little bit longer.
Can we then truly say that we're doing the "right thing" by respecting their wish to refuse extraordinary treatment? What if someone had shown these patients just that little bit more love and care, to make life worth living, to the very painful end?
Would we not then have failed our duty to our fellow human beings?