Do you support euthanasia?

[N4mddissent]

I appreciate your post Immanuel and admit I did not look up defintions prior to posting. That said, my mother suffered with Alzheimers for years before dying in June, 2008. She was bedridden for the final eight years of life, and had assisted suicide been available, she would surely have taken that option.
Given the definition of euthanasia you posted, my sister, father and I would have given the authority to her doctor for euthanasia years before her actual death. I am 100% my mother would have supported such a decision.
I support a patients right to choose, and believe it is not the business of lawmakers to deny such a right. If I (or my mother) had a written document that included a DNR - which she did and I do - why are we denied to take that decision one step farther?

I had a similar experience with my great grandfather who was bedridden for 5 years. In general I would support a person having the option, under certain conditions, to have assistance ending their life. But the situation you describe and I have experienced brings into question a situation where someone is mentally incapacitated.

I'm not sure what the answer is. It requires debate and discussion with both legal and medical experts. I'm uncomfortable with an earlier post that mentions "good" health care. If conditions were strictly defined where a minor or incapacitated person could be euthanized, then perhaps it is supportable. It would depend upon the defining conditions, and their specificity and force in law before I could approve.

 

[anna]

i'll support it, if barry hussein and his family goes first!!

 

[KittenKoder]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

If they can't communicate then how do we know they are suffering?

science.

think about Terri Schiavo. PEople have yet to apologize to Michael---the husband. Terri Schiavo case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Examination of Schiavo’s nervous system by neuropathologist Stephen J. Nelson, M.D., revealed extensive injury. The brain itself weighed only 615 g, only half the weight expected for a female of her age, height, and weight, an effect caused by the loss of a massive amount of neurons. Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalami, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the midbrain. The neuropathologic changes in her brain were precisely of the type seen in patients who enter a PVS following cardiac arrest. Throughout the cerebral cortex, the large pyramidal neurons that comprise some 70% of cortical cells – critical to the functioning of the cortex – were completely lost. The pattern of damage to the cortex, with injury tending to worsen from the front of the cortex to the back, is also typical. There was marked damage to important relay circuits deep in the brain (the thalami) – another common pathologic finding in cases of PVS. The damage was, in the words of Thogmartin, "irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."[68]

The cardiac pathologist who studied Schiavo's heart found it and the coronary vessels to be healthy (which excludes the possibility that her initial collapse was the result of myocardial infarction, although there was a localized area of healed inflammation (opening to the possibility of myocarditis). Thogmartin found that "there was no proof that Terri Schiavo ever had an eating disorder such as bulimia." Regarding the possibility of strangulation or domestic violence as a cause of Schiavo's initial collapse, the report states: "No trauma was noted on any of the numerous physical exams or radiographs performed on Mrs. Schiavo on the day of, in the days after, or in the months after her initial collapse. Indeed, within an hour of her initial hospital admission, radiographic examination of her cervical spine was negative. Specifically, external signs of strangulation including cutaneous or deep neck injury, facial/conjunctival petechiae, and other blunt trauma were not observed or recorded during her initial hospital admission. Autopsy examination of her neck structures 15 years after her initial collapse did not detect any signs of remote trauma, but, with such a delay, the exam was unlikely to show any residual neck findings."[69]

Sorry to douchenheimer you by answering your question with another question but your initial question can't be answered without me making an assumption, and i dint want to assume anything.

Notice that the extensive tests and examination to find the actual problem would have been fatal anyhow ... oh wait ... that would mean looking at it from another perspective ... my bad.

 

[Luissa]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

I believe in assisted suicide. When I worked with alzheimer's patients I did hope there was a way of putting them out of the misery but I would never want that without their consent.
I have seen nurses give them levels of morphine that speeded up the dying process, so instead of dying in six hours they died in two.
Once they stopped getting up and refused to eat we would stop feeding them and giving them water because it more painful for us to give them food once they have stopped. And dehyrdration is a natural pain reliever.

 

[Wry Catcher]

I find it very sad that a topic such as this generates very little real thought. I appreciate those of you who pondered the question and responded with considered thought.

 

[goldcatt]

I find it very sad that a topic such as this generates very little real thought. I appreciate those of you who pondered the question and responded with considered thought.

On the contrary, the topic causes some of us to think a great deal. But the answers aren't easy. I couldn't come right out and say what I would or would not support, and I hope I never have to.

A living will and/or health care directive is the best thing any person could ever do for their family so they never have to either. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Do you support euthanasia?

http://eipnetworks.com/RedOnYouth.MP3

 

[Wry Catcher]

I find it very sad that a topic such as this generates very little real thought. I appreciate those of you who pondered the question and responded with considered thought.

On the contrary, the topic causes some of us to think a great deal. But the answers aren't easy. I couldn't come right out and say what I would or would not support, and I hope I never have to.

A living will and/or health care directive is the best thing any person could ever do for their family so they never have to either. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.

"I hope I never have to"; yet you may have to make such a decision. No one can predict the future, but the possibility that I might have the fate of Joe Bonham or my mom is a possibility. I'm 62, and I have a DNR in my will, but, what if I have a stroke, and live for 5 or six years without the ability to speak or walk or enjoy a ball game? Thanks, no, I'd rather have the ability to assert in my will exactly that. Thanks but no thanks, give me a hot shot of morphine and let me go, warm and fuzzy.

 

[brewerboy]

Honestly, I cant believe that we're even having this conversation.

As far as I see it, euthanasia is a slippery slope that we, as a country, shoudnt go down. Once we start putting that decision into the hands of someone else, where does it stop? Where would it lead to?


I'd suggest that anyone for it read the first chapter of "The Third Reich at War"

Yes, I'm making that comparison.

 

[goldcatt]

I find it very sad that a topic such as this generates very little real thought. I appreciate those of you who pondered the question and responded with considered thought.

On the contrary, the topic causes some of us to think a great deal. But the answers aren't easy. I couldn't come right out and say what I would or would not support, and I hope I never have to.

A living will and/or health care directive is the best thing any person could ever do for their family so they never have to either. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.

"I hope I never have to"; yet you may have to make such a decision. No one can predict the future, but the possibility that I might have the fate of Joe Bonham or my mom is a possibility. I'm 62, and I have a DNR in my will, but, what if I have a stroke, and live for 5 or six years without the ability to speak or walk or enjoy a ball game? Thanks, no, I'd rather have the ability to assert in my will exactly that. Thanks but no thanks, give me a hot shot of morphine and let me go, warm and fuzzy.

I'm 37, and I already have a living will and a health care directive (which are not the same thing) as well as an executed medical power of attorney. I should say the only person I want to make those decisions for is myself, I don't ever want to have to try to decide what is right for another human being even in the abstract. Should I get hit by a car tomorrow my loved ones will know exactly what I do and do not want, all they have to do is sign whatever papers are needed.

I would hope others would do likewise and keep their loved ones from an even greater burden than they would already be bearing in the event of such a decision - that being the burden of choice.

 

[Emma]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

Assisted suicide isn't euthanasia. And yeah, I support someone's right to choose to end their life.

 

[KittenKoder]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

Assisted suicide isn't euthanasia. And yeah, I support someone's right to choose to end their life.

As do I, the problem is that they are generalizing to make things appear scarier than they are, this is just another example, and both sides are doing it just for different topics. Word play and double talk has become the new black.

 

[Emma]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

If they can't communicate then how do we know they are suffering?

Sorry to douchenheimer you by answering your question with another question but your initial question can't be answered without me making an assumption, and i dint want to assume anything.

You can still tell if someone is uncomfortable if they are not verbally responsive. Changes in vital signs, facial expressions, moaning, restlessness, muscle tension, etc.

 

[Emma]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

Assisted suicide isn't euthanasia. And yeah, I support someone's right to choose to end their life.

As do I, the problem is that they are generalizing to make things appear scarier than they are, this is just another example, and both sides are doing it just for different topics. Word play and double talk has become the new black.

?

I'm really sleepy (just got home from a wicked 13+ hour shift)... I'm not sure what you're talking about. Who's generalizing and about what?

 

[KittenKoder]

So _Pilgrim, If a patient is not able to communicate their wish for suffering to end, do we allow them to suffer?
Have you read "Johnny Get Your Gun"?

If they can't communicate then how do we know they are suffering?

Sorry to douchenheimer you by answering your question with another question but your initial question can't be answered without me making an assumption, and i dint want to assume anything.

You can still tell if someone is uncomfortable if they are not verbally responsive. Changes in vital signs, facial expressions, moaning, restlessness, muscle tension, etc.

Hell, we can even tell through brainwaves now.

 

[KittenKoder]

Assisted suicide isn't euthanasia. And yeah, I support someone's right to choose to end their life.

As do I, the problem is that they are generalizing to make things appear scarier than they are, this is just another example, and both sides are doing it just for different topics. Word play and double talk has become the new black.

?

I'm really sleepy (just got home from a wicked 13+ hour shift)... I'm not sure what you're talking about. Who's generalizing and about what?

In general ...

Sorry, couldn't resist. About using specific terms like "euthanasia" to describe all forms of killing, even mercy killing, for example. There are others but my mind isn't focused on debates right now so I can't recall any off hand.

 

[Emma]

Sarah Palin's recent assertion aside, do you support assisted suicide? Isn't the right to die with dignity, at the time YOU choose, and without pain a basic right?

I believe in assisted suicide. When I worked with alzheimer's patients I did hope there was a way of putting them out of the misery but I would never want that without their consent.
I have seen nurses give them levels of morphine that speeded up the dying process, so instead of dying in six hours they died in two.
Once they stopped getting up and refused to eat we would stop feeding them and giving them water because it more painful for us to give them food once they have stopped. And dehyrdration is a natural pain reliever.

A couple of points here. The risk of aspiration is very high with these patients. That is why I would withhold fluids or food by mouth.

Second, narcotics given for comfort at end of life do not 'speed up' the dying process or 'kill' the patient. I had a link to some research on this, I'll have to see if I can locate it.

Rats. I just did a quick search and there's info from the cancer center at the Cleveland Clinic which backs me up, but that isn't the one I was thinking of.

Morphine has no upper dose limit; it can be titrated to pain. It also serves to ease respiratory distress and 'air hunger' and lowers the workload on the heart.

I'll keep searching for the study.

 

[Emma]

If they can't communicate then how do we know they are suffering?

Sorry to douchenheimer you by answering your question with another question but your initial question can't be answered without me making an assumption, and i dint want to assume anything.

You can still tell if someone is uncomfortable if they are not verbally responsive. Changes in vital signs, facial expressions, moaning, restlessness, muscle tension, etc.

Hell, we can even tell through brainwaves now.

Well, my patients aren't hooked up to that stuff lol.

 

[KittenKoder]

You can still tell if someone is uncomfortable if they are not verbally responsive. Changes in vital signs, facial expressions, moaning, restlessness, muscle tension, etc.

Hell, we can even tell through brainwaves now.

Well, my patients aren't hooked up to that stuff lol.

Meh ... but they could be.

 

[Emma]

This is really bugging me. A study showing that O2 sats, respiratory drive, etc., were not affected by giving morphine for pain, and it didn't hasten death.

My google skillz have failed me

I'll have to try when I'm more awake and alert.