Comments on Secondhand Smoke: Your 24/7 Seminar on Bioethics and the Importance of Being Human: They Keep Pushing

I'm with you, Wesley - give her whatever it takes ...

2007-02-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

I'm with you, Wesley - give her whatever it takes to make the pain stop while she lives. Pain management should be at the level where NOBODY has to suffer. Why anybody suffers at all is beyond me - I think the health care system sucks dragon eggs. I don't mean HMOs or PPOs or anything like that, I mean the people on both sides of the bed (family members and doctors) who are supposed to be caring for the health of the guy *in* the bed (the patient) should be working together at all costs to relieve pain and help the patient enjoy his last days.

If past cases are any indication, her "friends" wi...

2007-02-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

If past cases are any indication, her "friends" will only be with her so long as she is pushing to be killed. If she changes her mind, as has happened in other cases, her "friends" will distance themselves, since she will cease to be an effective political tool to them.

It looks like pain isn't her only reason, either. ...

2007-02-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

It looks like pain isn't her only reason, either. She mentions not wanting to be cared for anymore and wanting to "assert her independence," and she says she doesn't want to "deal with" her illness anymore. She also says her condition will become "more undignified." Sounds like she's bought the whole "death with dignity" hook, line, and sinker. The article doesn't say what sort of pain treatment she's receiving right now. The whole thing is weird. To read the article you'd almost think she's getting _no_ treatment for pain, but that seems improbable. But in any event, it sounds like with the whole "dignity" and "independence" thing, she wouldn't change her mind even if her pain cd. be controlled.

No. She wants to be killed. That isn't medicine, ...

2007-02-13T11:59:00.000-08:00

No. She wants to be killed. That isn't medicine, whether it is a lethal injection or sedation and dehydration. Doctors should be permitted to treat her aggressively for pain, even if it inadvertently causes her death. If that takes sedation, which it can in very rare cases, it takes sedation. But sedation need not be terminal. It can (and does)include hydration and nutrition when a non dying patient is put into induced coma. If that were part of the deal, she might not want it.

Inducing coma should be medically determined to be necessary, not a matter of "choice." And indeed, it should be a very last resort. Moreover, her case should be analyzed by expert pain control doctors who may be the only ones qualified to handle unremitting, intractible pain. It would not surpise me in the least if there were less drastic means of easing her suffering. But her suffering should be eased.

Maybe she really _does_ want the doctors to make h...

2007-02-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Maybe she really _does_ want the doctors to make her "not here." Presumably, if I understand you correctly, they _could_ use these medications deliberately to kill her by "not doing it right"--giving a large dose without gradual increase. Is that correct? Maybe that's really what she's asking for. It needn't be a mere difference in terminology. I don't think we want to deny that it is possible (and sometimes done?) for doctors to engage in _real_ "terminal sedation" and that some people and families may misguidedly desire this.