Posted on 08/03/2005 10:38:25 AM PDT by tutstar
Terri schiavo's controversial death is old news now, but many of us are still grappling with the end-of-life questions it made us ask. The Florida woman's case propelled millions to consider living wills.
Not so fast, caution many Christian ethicists and right-to-life groups. Living wills are more complex than they appear and alone don't necessarily guarantee death on your terms. Even if you already have a living will, you might want to know why some critics think these documents may be dangerous and others see potential ethical problems. You may not want what you signed.
Some critics go so far as to see the recent rush to sign living wills as a victory of the pro-euthanasia movement.
Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue, lamented that the Hemlock Society had to be "dancing with glee" as, during the Schiavo debacle, Christian leaders were telling us to have living wills drawn up. Want it from the horse's mouth?
(Excerpt) Read more at lists.christianitytoday.com ...
But it is not *necessarily* a bad thing, as I said before.
I'm sorry to hear about your mother's misdiagnosis.
Well, she didn't die, because I refused to give my permission to the doctor to do what he wanted to do.
There you go. I'm glad it worked out for you. It wouldn't work that way for everyone, so that's why we all must have the option to handle this situation as we see fit without interference. Life is not "one size fits all," and neither is death,
I am a strong believer in appointing a power of attorney to speak for you in the event you are incapacitated in any way. That's the strongest representation one could have in that situation - a living will cannot possibly anticipate all contingencies.
Well, the fact is that the home that my mother was in held legal advisory conferences that advised the residents to fill out living wills, asking that they be allowed to be on life support for two weeks before being disconnected, to prevent exactly what happened to my mother. What the doctor was calling me for was permission to ignore the Living Will.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Bump, and ping coming.
The exact same thing happened when my mom died. The doctors decided she was going to die about five days before she actually did. She recovered a little at first and they were going to transfer her to a hospice, but on her last day her difficulty in breathing apparently got much worse and they increased the morphine dose at 11:00 am. She lost consciousness and died at 8:00 pm. I didn't realize until after she was out that she wasn't going to wake up again, but the hospital was right to do what they did.
Eh? If they are PVS, how do you "offer" them food and fluids by mouth?
I think you kill them when you take them off the tube, period. This "offer them food and fluid" business is just a cop out for ducking your responsibility to the patient. Statistically, SOME of those patients -- maybe all of them, we don't know -- are "in there." SOME of those patients -- maybe all, we don't know this either -- will feel pain and die in agony. Some of them would recover if they weren't dehydrated to death.
I don't know of anyone who supported her right to life that believed there is a cookie cutter answer for all the complex situations that come up in life on earth.
There were so many problems in Terri's case that it probably "took the cake" for improprieties including the fact that she was placed in the hospice without a doctor's signature and was not recertified every six months as the law requires.
What should not be confused is that there is a difference between brain damage and terminal illness. The statute used as justification for pulling her tube was only supposed to apply to terminally ill patients. The legislators all know this.
You have no idea the shock among the people I've talked with when it was learned that food and nutrition delivered to a body in any method other than a fork/spoon is in the Florida Statutes as "life prolonging procedures". I know people who have a feeding tube for various reasons and are not sick and drive, work, etc every day. No one would know unless they shared that info.
Justice For Florida Seniors has a lot of useful info . There are articles about people who had advance directives that were ignored by medical personell, info how guardianships are bilked, etc. At the end of the day we can do all humanly possible to prepare for worst case scenario and it may not make a bit of difference.
Hospice Patients Alliance also has a lot of good info.
The author of this article was in a coma for a while and recovered.
Thanks for posting this article & the additional info, tut. Good job, very helpful.
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