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.
“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.
I’m 80 and I’ve spent most of the last week in the hospital getting the best care my insurance can buy me.
Still, I’m 80 and I’m not really getting any better, only poorer and ever more tired. I can’t say I want someone else to decide when I should die but I firmly believe that choice is mine to make. Sure, I may find myself on the wrong side of the line once I stand for judgement but I’ve made similar choices throughout my life, any one of which might be enough to send me to hell.
I have already made the choice: When the only way I can live is by enlisting technology and an outside power source - pull the plug! There is more to life than maintaining a heartbeat. I am going to die! There is no choice in that. The only choice left is how to reduce the pain and strain on those I leave behind.
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.
And I would think that fate would terrify the hell out of people as they become older. Laying in their own filth and writhing in excruciating pain (there are levels of pain no pain reliever can alleviate) hour after hour, day after day. Literally being kept “alive” just so they can be tortured.
Who gets to judge “quality of life”?