Posted on 08/12/2008 8:05:23 AM PDT by Daniel T. Zanoza
Precautions and Alternatives
From the Editor: This is the second in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The RFFM.org re-posting of the column discusses how living wills can cancel out the wishes of patients and loved ones regarding end of life issues. Also, readers can learn how to seek out alternatives to living wills and find ways to ensure their end of life issues are respected and adhered to. Included are examples of how living wills have been used to disregard patients rights.
The following was written by Bill Beckman:
We knew the push for living wills based on the Terri Schiavo case would be dangerous to people who took the bait. Recently, some cases are coming to light that confirm our fears about the dangers of such documents. A living will has nothing to do with living, but everything to do with dying...
(Excerpt) Read more at rffm.typepad.com ...
As I said, that’s your choice. I also said that that description did not describe Hanford Pinette. Living Wills are being used to kill.
You can sign a living will saying you want every thing done, every life-prolonging intervention there is. Tube feeding respirator dialysis surgery
some in my family have told me this is want they want
i disagree but would honor their wishes
please excuse lack of caps and punctuation something just went screwy on the keyboard mid post
You can sign a living will saying you want every thing done, every life-prolonging intervention there is. Tube feeding respirator dialysis surgery
some in my family have told me this is want they want
i disagree but would honor their wishes
please excuse lack of caps and punctuation something just went screwy on the keyboard mid post
It is NOT a way a would have described my Grandmother. We treated her with more dignity than that.
And I certainly understand the keyboard gremlin. :)
The article was quite explicit that he could speak. Here's the quote from the linked article:
Mrs. Pinette objected because her husband 'Hank' was alert and oriented, there was no prognosis tendered that could determine his death was eminent, he spoke (sporadically, but he managed) and he responded physically to her directions and touch.
Sounds to me like the hubby and wife were not on the same page as it relates to his living will, as you will find it very difficult to convince me that the courts would have found in favor of the hospital in direct contradiction to the expressed wishes of the patient.
You can find these under the name "Will to Live." Have your attorney adapt it for use in your own state of residence.
>As I said, that’s your choice. I also said that that description did not describe Hanford Pinette. Living Wills are being used to kill.
And I acknowledged that a Medical Power of Attorney is probably a better way to go, for which I thank the author of the article.
However, one thing I can never get a Right To Lifer to acknowledge is WHY someone would be so eager to draft a document of this kind, to validate that it is okay to want a certain situation to end. All RTL that I have discussed this with, to a person, condemn the idea of even *wanting* to end their own existence even if it is a life devoid of any interaction other than eating and excreting. Are you in this camp?
And the patient never once said to disregard the living will? Odd, isn't it?
Really makes me wonder as to the veracity of the article.
Explain to me how someone could speak while on a ventilator? It is a tube in someones throat. He probably spoke when it was removed. It causes the throat to be very sore after removal.
I answered you. For the 3rd time, I said the choice is yours.
Your take on this illustrates how the popular presumption has shifted toward death (euthanasia, assisted suicide, whatever).
If the guy was capable of communicating, then the Living Will should have been off the table. If he couldn't communicate, then his wife should have been calling the shots. Either way, he lives.
What assumption did I make? The story explicitly states he could speak. That is not an assumption. I copied and pasted the quote in my last post to you. Did you read it either time (in the story or my post)?
Your issue is with the author of the story, not me.
People certainly are quick to snuff out a viable life. And then defend it.
That is an incorrect assumption considering that Pinette made his wife his named surrogate.
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This is how far we've slid down the slippery slope toward euthanasia. The Living Will was never designed to be something the patient has the burden of overriding! But essentially, that's what you're saying. If he didn't want to die, the burden was on him (in his weakened condition) to become his own advocate!!! In a death penalty case!!!
Very true.
> It is NOT a way a would have described my Grandmother. We treated her with more dignity than that.
That’s up to you and your family. My mother made it very clear that she loathed doctors and hospitals and used language much stronger than mine about the non-responsive state. She drew up a Living Will with my Dad. When she had a brain-killing stroke 5 years ago there was no question in all of the family about feeding tubes. I want that same clarity in case that happens to me, which is quite likely given both parents’ tendency to stroke.
And I have been told, oh, you’re so sinful, you’re wrong, etc. and I have been heartbroken to hear the condemnation of my fellow Catholics about our family’s decision to honor my mother’s wishes about the way she did NOT want to live. And every time I see moves to legislate some kind of “protection” drafted by otherwise good-hearted people to meddle in my family in some of the most gut-wrenching and private decisions, well.... it just makes me livid.
Me too. I don’t want to be kept alive after my time has come.
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