Posted on 03/04/2005 12:28:13 PM PST by aculeus
Will his family now sue the doctor for malpractice, for failing to complete the procedure properly? Unfortunately, many courts would probably allow such a suit to proceed.
Not only that, but had we elected John Kerry, the man would be walking!
Just another example of how individuals react differently to drugs. This guy was on one end of the ever-present bell curve.
Yep, I was told that it just eases their passing, so that they won't fight to breathe.
He is dead, did you read the article. But his widow could still sue for mental anguish.
That is what I read. At first I thought the doctor had dropped dead in the meantime, and the patient outlived him...until I read part of the post.
Most of these people are completely bedridden, and some even quadraplegics. They are not able to "go" anywhere on their own, or do much beyond operate a drug self-administration device that somebody else has filled. Such devices are routinely used on both terminal and non-terminal patients to allow the patient to control the amount and timing of pain medication, but except in assisted suicide cases, are set up in a way which makes deliberate or accidental self-administration of a lethal dose impossible.
Exactly. There's something way wrong with a society which insists that humans die in a way which would constitute illegal cruelty if done to an animal.
Have you ever been around someone dying from cancer or a similar disease during their last few days of life? I've seen family members go like that, and it's horrible. Why should the patient have to endure such a terrible end when they can go comfortably and at their own volition? We treat farm animals and household pets better than we treat dying people.
And, just to touch on the issue of states' rights, if Oregon voters want assisted suicide to be legal in their state, why should the federal government (or other states) have any right to deny Oregonians their wishes?
Not everyone is in a physical state to do it, especially late terminals. The hands might be too weak to lift a 3 lbs handgun, and to pull the slide to chamber the cartridge is to grab the slide strongly and to pull against 15-25 lbs recoil spring.
A slow human death can be a very long and painful experience. I've always said that I wanted to die under anesthesia on an operating room table. Where your unconscious and feel nothing.
The same way they put people down for the death penalty basically.
Amazing that people have been dying just that way for thousands and thousands of years, huh?
Which John Edwards? Hmm well both of them channel anyway.
The Hippocratic Oath is not a matter of law. It'd be like a boy scout violating the Scouts Honor.
Guess what. Doctors don't have to take the Hippcrate Oath any more. Great society we live in, huh?
Hippcrate = Hippocratic
There are different versions of the oath. Many doctors have refused to take any version prohibiting abortions, and I expect some versions also are structured to allow for patient-requested assistance with bringing about death. At a medical school graduation I attended a few years ago, there were two different versions of the oath used, and the graduating class about evenly split in which one they chose -- there were two group recitations, one right after the other. At any rate, the oath is really just a tradition, like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and has no legal significance. I've recited the Pledge without complaint whenever it was expected of me, but I most certainly don't buy into its socialist origins and its anti-states' rights "one nation . . . indivisible" cr*p.
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