Quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
I have to apologize for the wording of the last question. Due to the space limitation on the question form I had a hard time trying to think of a way to phrase it so that it would fit. The last question..was in my mind concerning the occurance of a massive head trauma where there is little or no sign of personality, or the patient is in so much agony that they are not coherent (as I am told that some bone cancer patients get this way)...All I could think of was being in sheer agony and being unable to muster the strength or control to make my wishes known. I guess this throws into light another issue, in that we all should have some sort of legal document outlining our wishes made while we are still healthy.
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Ah OK.
Well in that case I agree that in an ideal situation, it would be good for everybody to make their wishes known, preferably on paper, so that IF something happens (like a coma, head trauma, rapidly developing Alzheimer, etc), there is a document for the medics to consult. I do realise however that the situation's often less than ideal: a lot of people don't realise that they too can have an accident. It's really surprising how many people have an 'oh well, that won't happen to me anyway' attitude. My own attitude is more like 'I sure hope it won't happen, but just in case it does...' LOL
Anyway, in the case of people without a 'will', I don't think I have a fixed opinion. I'd judge that on a case-by-case situation. For example, I can understand that after several years of coma, the family of the patient decides to 'pull out the plug', so to speak. On the other hand, I often hear people ignorantly comment that 'if I get Alzheimer, you can shoot me in the head'. Alzheimer, however, is an illness with a usually very gradual decline, and in fact is often worse for the patient's loved ones to endure than for the patients themselves. So this could lead to the family deciding in favour of euthanasia even when the patient still has some degree of happiness. That would be very wrong. So if there were to be made a law stating that family members can decide on euthanasia in special cases, I would say that there would have to be made some VERY strict regulations, if such a law should be made at all. I understand that it's the only solutions in some cases (when someone is clearly in unalleviatable* agony and unable to request death)(* - is that a word?) but I can also think of many cases in which the family, deliberately or not, could make the wrong decision.