Pressured by doctors to stop life-support

Motek

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 1:46 pm

Quote:

I've been asked to kill my child. They've tried to convince me, tried to help me see the light. And each time that I stand before them, struggling to make them understand the value of a human life as I see it, to understand that what makes a human being so precious to God is not only his capacity to do, but also to simply to be, to exist, I meet with a dead end.

When they stood there again the next day, that pack of doctors, attempting to convince me with gentle persuasion, coercion, and even thinly disguised threats, I was ready. "You know, if you take her off the life support, she will die," the neurologist helpfully pointed out to me.

"Yes, I know," I answered calmly. "But I don't intend to do that. I don't want to kill my child. I don't make these kinds of decisions. God will decide when it's time for her to go."

"But she's in pain. How can you, in good conscience, keep a child who's in pain alive?"

"I thought you said she cannot feel anything. Her brain cannot process the fact that she may be in pain. I thought you said her brain can't process anything."

The neurologist looked nonplussed for a moment. But she quickly regained her composure and answered, "Oh, but the absence of any joy is pain. Her life has no meaning. It is not a life worth living."

http://www.aish.com/societyWor.....e.asp

faigie ↓

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 2:08 pm

two important points to add here.
one........
that story occurred recently in the case of that poor child who nearly drowned in the pool. she was "brain dead" on life support pull the plug etc.........yet she is homenow bah and gaining strength and faculties daily.
two,,,,,,,,,
I had a friend years ago who suffered a major stroke while preg. they only kept her alive, and on life support, to keep her "fetus" alive. well the kid was born, and she didnt die. though she is a paraplegic, she is fully aware of what is going on around her, is able to communicate, and has had the nachas of marrying of children etc.

amother ↓

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 2:11 pm

That girl is actually in the hospital again. She had a severe infection that needed to be tended to. She had surgery today and I think will need another one to drain spinal fluid leaking from the head. Doesnt sound to me like she is doing great. But they hope after this infection is under control to bring her back home to a room they made into a hospital room for her.

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 2:22 pm

I agree, or at least am very ambivalent about the whole life support issue. I feel like it is so iffy that I could never pull a plug on someone, probably even if they verbally told me beforehand (as a close relative did) that they wouldnt want to be on. How could they know until they are in that situation G-d forbid.
I just meant to say that just because she is home doesnt mean she is doing wonderfully. She has a hospital room at home, is obviously on a respirator, IVs. Right now her "gaining strength and faculties" according the family's own report is she reportedly moves her fingers and toes more when he family is around, and one of her pupils is dilating (2+ months after the accident) which means maybe there is brain activity. I agree the infection can, and hopefully will be a temporary thing but it is not like she is getting up and carrying on as usual today or tomorrow.

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 2:29 pm

We took someone off life support, someone who expressed the wish beforehand. Sometimes people know what kind of life they don't want, what kind of death they do want, and people follow their wishes. There is a good reason for Advance Directives, so that doctors, family members and the person him or herself can agree. Obviously in the case of young children, it's a very complicated situation.

↑ amother

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 2:39 pm

The lay person usually doesn't understand the difference between true "brain death", and a chronic vegetative state. They look similar to the untrained eye, but are vastly different medically.
In a true brain death situation, the patient will die soon after life support is removed. Nobody has ever recovered, or lived for more than a few minutes with true brain death.
In a chronic vegetative state, it is assumed that the person will die soon after the plug is pulled, but this is where you sometimes hear of people living like that for years, or even having some recovery.
Different Poskim may pasken differently depending on these situations, regarding the permissibility or otherwise of euthenasia, organ donation etc. But this is a very intricate area of Halacha, and anyone R"L faced with these situations should proceed only with the advice of a Posek who is particularly well versed in these areas.

shalhevet

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 2:50 pm

amother wrote:

There is a good reason for Advance Directives, so that doctors, family members and the person him or herself can agree.

This is not a Jewish view. Since our lives do not belong to us, it is irrelevant what the person said he wanted (apart from the fact that he may have said something completely different then to his wishes once in the situation.)

As people have mentioned, it is a complex halachic issue, and may we never know of it.

Mommy3.5

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 6:02 pm

shalhevet wrote:

amother wrote:

There is a good reason for Advance Directives, so that doctors, family members and the person him or herself can agree.

A person is halachicly allowed to say that they do not wish to go on life support in the first place (cases of severe illness) The problem is removing life support once it has begun.