Posted on 01/31/2020 8:10:36 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Question: Is it ever permissible for Christians to withdraw life-sustaining support to terminally ill individuals?(By CP Cartoonist Rod Anderson)
This is a question I am asked with ever increasing frequency as the medical technology continues to push back the threshold of physical death.
First, it is imperative to state that Christians must never countenance any medication or treatment that actively shortens life (i.e., euthanasia or “mercy-killing”).
The vexing question for people of faith, however, is “is it ever morally permissible to withdraw extraordinary life-extending treatments for terminally ill unconscious or comatose patients?” I need to note at this point that I agree with Pope John Paul II that the furnishing of nutrition and hydration to patients not able to feed themselves should never be defined as “extraordinary treatment,” but seen as a basic requirement for a Christian civilization, as opposed to a pagan one (cf. Matthew 25:35).
The first principle should be that the patient's will should take precedence over government officials, insurance underwriters, medical staff, or even loved ones. If at all possible, the patient’s wishes should take precedence as long as he or she does not desire to have active measures taken to shorten his or her life.
If an unconscious patient has left instructions in advance that extraordinary medical steps to extend life should not be taken, then I believe the patient’s wishes should be honored, knowing that natural physical death will ensue. Of course, if the patient has expressed the desire to avail himself or herself of such measures, then those wishes should be honored as well.
I believe a sentient human being has the right, when in the last stages of a terminal illness, to say, “I do not want any further extraordinary treatment. When I am near death, I do not want to elongate the process artificially with extraordinary measures such as heart-lung machines. Once again, this does not mean he or she has the right to say, give me something to hasten my physical death when I am near death” — that’s euthanasia.
I have personally faced both sides of this issue. My parents both went home to be with the Lord at the age of 92. My father expressed the desire to not have extraordinary medical measures employed to prolong his life and my mother expressed the opposite desire and my family did our best to accommodate their individual wishes.
What do you do when you have no guidance from the patient? I believe for a Christian, when a patient is terminal, unconscious, or comatose, it is permissible, but never required, to make the decision to unplug heart-lung machines and other means of artificially extending physical life, especially after brain death has occurred.
I myself have left instructions that if I am terminally ill and comatose, that when brain death occurs, I am to receive no additional life support measures. Of course, my view is determined by the fact that as a born-again Christian I have no fear of death, believing that “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).
May our heavenly Father give us all wisdom as we seek to discern His will in these weighty matters.
life support, keeping someone alive, why keep them from heaven... food and hydration is another thing...
When is it ‘right’ to employee life support?
As per my will, no extraordinary measures for me, thank you and god bless!
If I am unconscious and there is no reasonable short-term cure or bridge to recovery, let me go.
Here is the program I manage: www.sanjoaquinccc.org
My wife and I have an iron clad DNR, No life support, No feeding tubes legal document set up.
So that explains where I stand.
Not completely on subject... People with Alzheimers and other forms of dementia used to hang on around here for many years. More recently we seem to be noticing among people we have known personally that their life expectancy after being diagnosed in this area has gone way down. Many have taken a trip to Oregon and haven’t come back. Supposedly Oregon’s assisted suicide law require the person to be competent to make that decision, but there appears to be some type of loophole.
Just had to go through this with my mom who fell and suffered a brain aneurysm and she was effectively brain dead within an hour.
For the most part her body was fine but she was non-responsive and the part of her brain regulating breathing had been damaged so that she required a breathing machine.
Mom had always wanted to have her life prolonged if need be and I flew down ready to put up a fight to see that through if I had to, but she was effectively gone already and we pulled the breathing machine. She passed 48 hours later.
It was different for my grandmother who had had a stroke and had some cognitive ability but couldn’t swallow. So my uncle had a feeding tube out in and she was with us for another 6 months under steady decline and several nursing homes. With hindsight my uncle isn’t sure he would’ve gone ahead with the feeding tube as her life wasn’t much in that last 6 months but also was happy that he felt he had done all he could to prolong her life.
No easy answers - but we should defend life when we can. That makes it valuable.
Like putting people on an ice flow?
When the signed paperwork from the patient is presented to the doctor or the family knows the intentions of the patient. Not sure why anybody would want to watch a family member on machines. That’s cruel and sinful as well as selfish!!!
The framing on your webpage cuts off a couple of characters on each side in the Silk browser that comes with Fire Tablets both in portrait and landscape mode. It does not allow zooming out to see them. The page works OK with Chrome.
“It was different for my grandmother who had had a stroke and had some cognitive ability but couldn’t swallow.”
Exactly same to my 95 year old uncle. Doctor asked if he wanted a feeding tube. He had some communication and said NO No No shaking his head no
Told doctor to bring him a gun so he could shoot himself.
MY uncle was an old WWII battlefield survivor who was severely wounded and knew what death was about - not afraid of it.
I’m dealing with end of life issues with a relative and have for years. It’s important to know that what medical professionals consider “life support” is different than what the general public does.
Life support is NOT just being hooked up to a heart/lung machine. They consider intravenous feeding and hydration life support. They want end of life directives that call for no extraordinary measures without specifying what those measures are. That gives them the cover to starve and dehydrate patients to death.
I have seen a lot of very sad situations where my crews and I “saved” someone with CPR and defibrillation, only to have them never regain consciousness and be on machines for extended periods of time before they finally are “disconnected”.I
But in several situations that we know of personally... People suffering from some form of dementia have been taken on a trip to Oregon never to return. People with this type of condition are easily manipulated in many cases. The biggest problem that we have with this is that people who are diagnosed with dementia often have a problem with the prescription drugs, nutritional supplements, tumors, dietary deficiencies or other causes that go away with competent medical care. My wife is a retired nurse who spent a lot of years working with persons with diminished mental capacity. She saw a lot of cases of dementia that were thought to be permanent and turned out not to be.
Bad html, sorry.
Retired R,N. with forty years of critical care experience. There are no easy or right answers. I once heard an M.D. say “we played God when we put him on a ventilator.” We have to support those who have to make the decisions. My elderly mother had to make the decision about her sister, it haunted her everyday.
It is God’s decision when we are born and when we die.
It has been said that a good paramedic knows when to go balls to the wall on a code and when to slow walk and go through the motions on resuscitation efforts. I could not handle that choice.
Too many people supposedly “brain dead” or in a “vegetative state” have been killed. They were NOT already DEAD.
If a baby in the womb has neural activity DAYS after conception, how can abortion be legal?
“The fetal nervous system — i.e., your baby’s brain and spinal cord — is one of the very first systems to develop. In fact, it’s making big strides before you even know you’re pregnant.”
I’m 100% pro LIFE. ALL lives matter.
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