My thoughts:
1) If the state pays for your health care and cuts you off, sucks to be you. You just lost your deal with the devil. State don’t and won’t care that there’s an inherent conflict of interest inherent in the system.
2) After having made a few of these decisions, I can’t imagine trying to make one for strangers. If folks can pay their own way, and there are no issues of abuse, neglect, unlicensed and/or unaccredited providers, I’m very much for letting folks take care of their own. I can see no good reason for the UK to keep Charlie when his parents can pay and have qualified providers willing to care for Charlie.
3) Words like “quality of life” get used a lot. Maybe “quality of death” should be, too. If you’ve ever watched someone die a lingering death, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes the best that can be hoped for is managing the decline in such a way as to minimize suffering. But that avenue is not always the quickest or cheapest.
“But that avenue is not always the quickest or cheapest.”
In my opinion allowing a person you love to linger in something that hardly qualifies for life can be punishing to both. The only good part here, if there is such a thing, is that a baby never realizes the goods or bads of life except needs for a while. They only want what they need because they have never seen what the could get. But those can become monotonous and thus a yearn for more is created even though they don’t know what. And that becomes frustrating.
An older child that crossed over into this catagory has seen beyond food, warmth, and waking up from sleep. They realize the people that are with them, and through a process of limitation, entertain them. But that in itself for one who doesn’t know, is a good life until the newness gets old.
An adult does not want to linger. They know it’s painful and frustrating to everyone. And unless the adult is happy as they are, they won’t be long. My mother’s mind is pretty much gone now in her advancing age. And she has her health. But she’s happy in her memories and her revert back to babyhood.
So where do you go from there? Nobody said it would be easy.
rwood