Doctor: Elderly People Should be Left to Die, Their Quality of Life is Too Low

Life News ^ | 8/7/14 | Sarah Zagorski

[wagglebee]

Dr. James Beattie, a cardiologist who works at the East of England NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham, believes hospitals should let more elderly patients die and “quality of life” should be given more consideration.

According to an article in the Daily Mail, Beattie said that society no longer accepts mortality and is much less familiar with death.

‘If a person is in hospital, particularly an elderly person with multiple co-morbidities, if they have a cardiac arrest it’s a sign they are in decline,’ he told Radio 4.

‘It’s their act of dying and they should not be resuscitated, they should be allowed to die.’

Dr Beattie, who works at the East of England NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham, explained that the chance of an elderly person leaving hospital after being resuscitated is around 5 per cent.

But he said the issue was a difficult one because people today are less likely to think and talk about death thanks to advancements in modern medicine, which mean that people are living longer.

‘Society these days is much less familiar with death,’ he said, adding: ‘Our great-grandparents and to some extent our grandparents grew up with people dying before the days of antibiotics.

‘That’s denied these days. People died at home. Death is now becoming something in hospitals and care homes, somewhere removed from the family and the home.’

However, the ideology that Beattie proposes is a slippery slope and leads to an ugly future, where the elderly, ill, and dying are neglected and even killed.

Dr. Everett Koop, a renown pediatric surgeon who served as Surgeon General of the United States during President Reagan’s administration, said in his book The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor, “… We must be wary of those who are too willing to end the lives of the elderly and the ill. If we ever decide that a poor quality of life justifies ending that life, we have taken a step down a slippery slope that places all of us in danger. There is a difference between allowing nature to take its course and actively assisting death. The call for euthanasia surfaces in our society periodically, as it is doing now under the guise of “death with dignity” or assisted suicide.”

While the morality of many end-of-life decisions, such as when to sign a “do not resuscitate order”, when to take a loved one off life support, or if extraordinary measures should be taken to save a person’s life can vary case-by-case, deciding that the elderly or sick should be left to die because they will not have a good quality of life is not one doctors in hospitals should be making. When society travels down that path, it not only leads to death by omission, but intentional, direct killing of innocent people.

Burke Balch J.D. said it best at the National Right to Life convention in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this summer: “It is critical that we understand that the actual application of quality of life ideology is extremely subjective and very arbitrary. Humanity exists on a continuum of our degree of mental mobility, and on a continuum of physical health. The issue of where you draw the line of whether a particular persons life if worth living, or a particular life is not worth living, is something of a gut instinct or of a consensus among doctors.”

The article concluded by explaining that sometimes doctors spend too much time and money on petitions for their patients who need surgeries, instead of meeting all their responsibilities as physicians. Although it may be valid to argue that doctors need to manage their time wisely, when making medical decisions, it needs to be emphasized that time and money should not be ultimate deciding factors as to whether a person lives or dies. Instead, a civilized society should protect their weakest and do everything within their power to ensure their health and survival.

[SES1066]

The Roman Empire satirist Juvenal in Satire VI, lines 347–8, wrote about the dangers of guardians making expedient decisions when society is only asking them to guard! Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? translates out to "Who will guard the guards themselves?" and is a haunting warning here. With national healthcare (British NHS and now Obamacare here), medical care, especially in hospitals, is a limited resource and it is the nameless, faceless bureaucrat that asks "Is this the best use of that hospital bed?" The claim is that there are no "Death Panels", the reality is that there are no panels with that name!

[Alex Murphy]

“If they be like to die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.” - Ebenezer Scrooge

[The elderly have] “a duty to die and get out of the way... so that our kids can build a reasonable life." - [former] Colorado governor Richard Lamm

[metmom]

I know of a case where an older woman was in her 60’s she had her goiter removed. She was old country and objected saying that she was old and wouldn’t live long anyway, but had it done.

They discovered it was growing down towards her heart and was just a short distance away. It would have killed her when it hit her heart.

She lived another 30 years.

[huldah1776]

Can’t wait till this subhuman gets to be 80. I hope God is just in his lifetime as opposed to when he goes to hell.

[Straight Vermonter]

...isn’t the moral thing to do to take each person’s case on its own merits?

Absolutely. Sometimes we should fight to make sure our loved ones get every bit of medical help they can. Other times we have to realize that they are not going to make it and give them pain relief and our love, while allowing them to go.

I despise the practice of assisted suicide (and the more common practice of killing through neglect) but when a person has a terminal illness it's OK to not take heroic measures.

[huldah1776]

Uh, left in the corner without food, water, and pain meds.

And we wonder why GB has been invaded by terrorists.

[Dr. Sivana]

Your use of the word expedient reminds me of a verse from scripture:

“Now Caiphas was he who had given the counsel to the Jews: That it was expedient that one man should die for the people.” (John 18:14)

[AU72]

When you take the governments money you get government quality care.

[RFEngineer]

“or they work to get private care.”

That is the issue that will drive this in the future. Who pays? If you rely on socialism to act morally, you have already started from an immoral foundation.

If you expect the government to pay for everything and also act morally, you expect too much.

Socialism WILL kill people. Medicare will kill people the same as the NHS. The best time to make the moral argument is at the establishment of socialist programs and institutions. Failing that you are just fighting over the moral high ground, and accomplishing nothing.

[baddog 219]

Coming soon to America

[wiggen]

You shouldn’t ignore what the doctor actually said. “‘If a person is in hospital, particularly an elderly person with multiple co-morbidities, if they have a cardiac arrest it’s a sign they are in decline,’ he told Radio 4.

Having been in the hospital 3 seperate weeks over the past year and having people in the same room suffering and unable to do anything for themselves i can tell you that they may be alive but they’re surely not living. They’re beating hearts with a bunch of needles stuck in their bodies. This in NOT the same as denying Schiavo nutrients. This isn’t about starving someone to death which i am bitterly opposed to. He’s speaking of people who are literally dying and being brought back from the dead to just lay there and suffer for some longer period of time.

I understand where you’re coming from but the doctor didn’t say don’t try and save otherwise healthy people.

[tang-soo]

ping for later

[skeeter]

My father is suffering from metastatic prostate cancer but I'm doing what I can to extend his life as much as possible. In spite of his doctor basically writing him off a year and a half ago.

In spite of some discomfort he's enjoying life as much as is possible for someone his age.

[GailA]

The same goes for those in the USA who are stuck in nursing homes. The more often a patient is visited, the better care they get.

Have a living will in place, and be sure you can trust the younger person you assign as your protector.

[x_plus_one]

The national health service is an authoritarian pagan death cult.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Compared to Rahm Emanuel’s brother, this guy is a veritable Florence Nightengale.

[Don Corleone]

An Agenda 21 adherent!

[CodeToad]

Doctors work too many hours and consequently have a low quality of life. They should all be killed, right?

[Fear The People]

Remember Henry... he's 91 and in poor health. I wonder what he has to say now...

[CSM]

“I understand where you’re coming from but the doctor didn’t say don’t try and save otherwise healthy people.”

You are forgetting that these folks only say what you will find palatable, while they know that the result of the beauracracy implementing what they said is that it will extend far beyond what you found palatable. It is as it always is and always will be.

He may have made a public statement that you accept, but his cocktail party discussions are likely much different.