From: ian glendinning (psybertron@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Apr 03 2005 - 01:25:47 BST
Platt - of course it was horrible, on both sides - that's what happens
when you reduce an issue to a stupid dichotomy between two
authoritarian extremes, (each with their own political agendas)
instead of letting humans on the ground make quality judgements -
life's too complicated for politics and religion to be allowed
anywhere near it.
Ian
On Apr 3, 2005 7:09 AM, David Buchanan <DBuchanan@classicalradio.org> wrote:
> Richard Loggins said to dmb:
> I'll ventur to say that until you are personally in a
> PVS situation yourself, you don't know what kind of
> black board you have. Her parents say she responded to
> them.
>
> dmb replies:
> Her parents deserve sympathy, but do you really think its reasonable that
> their opinion should trump all the doctors and judges? There was a doctor
> who took the side of the parents, but the court found him to be "not
> credible". I mean, its clear that we do not have perfect knowledge about
> such situations. The best we can do is rely on medical science and the law.
> The best we can do is honor the opinions of the doctors who examined her.
> Their finding were presented to the judges within the rules of evidence as
> set by the courts. I think its wrong to dismiss all that in favor of some
> rather wild speculations about the blissful awareness of vegetables or the
> will of god. If she can't respond to static quality, then what reason is
> there to believe she can respond to DQ? No. I think we have to handle these
> things on a conventional level or this matter will get way out of hand. I
> can just see a new law prohibiting any plug pulling for anyone unless such
> wishes had been put in writing and can be proved in court. I can just see
> the right opening new hospitals to care for those unfortunate souls who
> failed to sign a living will. I can see religous-right lawyers looking for
> loopholes in the ones that were signed. I can see a whole new industry.
>
> Personally, I think its cruel to confuse human life with such low level
> biological functioning. And 87%? of Americans say that they would not want
> to "live" like that. They would pull the plug on themselves in that
> situation. Only a tiny minority would choose that existence over death.
> Ironically, these are the same people who believe most fervently that
> they're going to heaven. What's up with that? Anyway, isn't that what it
> really comes down to? We get to decide. I'm the one who gets to decide which
> medical treatments I'll accept or reject. I'm the one who gets to decide
> whether or not my life is worth living, not the congress or some guy from my
> dad's church.
>
>
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