Mercy killing of infants: A doctor explains

International Herald Tribune ^ | March 19, 2005 | Gregory Crouch

[Crackingham]

Bounding down a spiral staircase that resembles a sawed-off strand of DNA, Dr. Eduard Verhagen is wrapping up a tour of what is surely the world's most controversial pediatric ward. In the past two years, Dr. Verhagen, the clinical director of pediatrics at the University Medical Center, Groningen, has presided over the medically induced deaths of four extraordinarily ill newborns. For his efforts to end what he calls their unbearable and incurable suffering, he has been called "Dr. Death," a second Hitler and worse, mostly by American opponents of euthanasia.

snip

"My first reaction to most of the criticism is: ridiculous, uninformed," Dr. Verhagen said. "Then the question arises in me: How is it possible that people themselves feel free to say such horrible things about other people they don't know?"

Dr. Verhagen is asking people to recognize something many would prefer not to even think about: A few babies are born with conditions so horrific, so excruciatingly painful, that their doctors and even their parents think they would be better off dead.

His push for an open and detailed discussion of such cases could one day, some hope and others fear, lead to the formal legalization of infant euthanasia in the Netherlands.

[madprof98]

How is it possible that people themselves feel free to say such horrible things about other people they don't know?

As Michael Schiavo said, How can people accuse me of being an adulterer and a murderer when they haven't even met me?

[GOP_1900AD]

All people with (or parents / loved ones of people with) any defects whatsoever (including even minor things like ADD or family histories of cancer or heart attacks) need to stand up and say no to euthanasia. Some have already stepped onto the slippery slope but there is still (barely) time to keep the whole world from going over the cliff.

[clee1]

Evil is as evil does. Where is your Hippocratic oath now, Doctor?

[massgopguy]

As a LION, I am grateful that Judge Greer and Michal Schiavo weren't around when Hellen Keller went deaf and blind as an infant.

[kimmie7]

I believe it's now the "Hypocritical" Oath...

[mad puppy]

Slippery slope indeed.

But...says a father of 5, could you really just watch one of your own suffer horribly for a couple years knowing they will only die? Never reach 5 years old. Never do anything but feel crippling pain.

It is truly a horrible thing to think about. If there was truly no hope but death, I don't think I could just let them suffer utill that death.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

The vast majority of people have never met Adolph Hitler or Ted Bundy, either. I understand that Bundy was a charming fellow, and that Hitler was a pretty good little painter. We don't even know these poor, misjudged gentlemen, and yet we are so quick to criticize! For shame!

[tutstar]

ping

[TChris]

It is truly a horrible thing to think about. If there was truly no hope but death, I don't think I could just let them suffer utill that death.

But, therein lies the great difficulty: When can you know for certain that there is no hope of recovery? There are numerous examples of patients of all ages recovering from "hopeless" cases.

I think many people would agree with you, if there were some sure way to determine that the patient's immense suffering and imminent death were inevitable. Things being as they really are, however, such surety is lacking.

[mad puppy]

Yep. I hear you.

Thanks for not flaming me.

[TChris]

Thanks for not flaming me.

Flames are for roasting trolls. :-)

[Bigs from the North]

once again the almost laughable comments posted on a very serious subject.

It amazes me that in the 21st century that so many intelligent people can not understand that there are times that all our medical abilities can not help a very few infants. There is nothing that medicine can do for them. they are alive, but they can never grow and never survive.

Lets be perfectly straight about this, we are not talking about deafness, or blindness, or spinabifita(sp) or missing limbs here. We are talking about infants born with terminal illness. Conditions that have no hope of cure or even treatment.

We are talking about medical professionals in conjunction with parents and clergy making a decision that none of them want to ever have to make, but are forced on them because of a terminal medical condition. This is not one person.

Having live through this kind of situation, I know that there are few options.

1. do nothing. Allow the child to live and die with out aid. The child will live in extreme pain, screaming as loud as they can. Did you know that an infant can actually damage their lungs screaming like that?
Eventually they will deteriorate and die.

2. Sedate the child and keep them in a state of chemical induced comma. Some conditions can be helped this way, but there are a few that it only stops pain. They may live a bit longer, but to what end? What does it do for the child? for the parents and family that have to face this?

3. End it as painlessly as possible. End the torture, the agony, the emotional torment.

I personally hope that none of you ever have to live through the heart wrenching time of having a child born into your family and then watch as the baby slowly socomes to a very painful death.

If you did, you might understand, but i hope you continue to live ignorant of the reality.

[tertiary01]

Still trolling huh?

This is one of the reasons why I retired from nursing. I will not kill or abort my patients. And some MDs already think their Gods, so I don't think they need to decide when we shall die.

Euthanasia is not medical care!!

Here's a source that documents the funding from your puppetmaster.


http://www.missionsun.net/tcajune2004.htm

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Don't be so quick to assume that others are ignorant, or haven't faced the same things you have, just because they disagree with you.

Every single one of us is born with a terminal condition: it's called mortality. Every one of us suffers. Who are you to presume to know when the suffering of another warrants his death? There are very few instances in which the deliberate taking of another's life is morally justifiable. Mere human suffering, however horrible it may be to you, does not justify the murder of the innocent sufferer.

[tertiary01]

Not Terri, but slippery slope euthanasia ping

[Salvation]

"Thou shalt not kill."

Now what does the doctor not understand about that?

[PISANO]

It is truly a horrible thing to think about.

The example of the child in the article is just unimaginable, I am pro-life and anti-euthanasia, HOWEVER, if the anecdotal became PERSONAL and I had a child with that affliction, I honestly don't think I would want to have him/her suffer for 5 years. I thank God I never faced that horrible choice.

When the FEDS/GOVT gets involved and laws are passed...... eventually it will lead to euthanasia for cleft-lips, etc. It is truly a dilema of monstrous proportions.