Comments on Secondhand Smoke: Your 24/7 Seminar on Bioethics and the Importance of Being Human: Something is Going Very Wrong in Healthcare

Lois: I am humbled. You are the one fighting for ...

2007-12-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

Lois: I am humbled. You are the one fighting for the life of your father. It isn't easy to stand fast against pressure.

I agree with you Laura. Feeding tubes used to be considered a relatively minor matter to help patients unable to swallow or who might aspirate their food. Now, it is seen as the epitome of indignity and its withdrawing or withholding a splendid way to get rid of "biologically tenacious" patients, as one bioethicist once described the debate subjects.

I don't think that patients expected to recover are in danger. But patients not expected to recover are increasingly being seen as "the other," whose time has come to go, as if recovery were the only purpose of medicine.

That whole feeding tube phobia drives me nuts.My m...

2007-12-17T14:24:00.000-08:00

That whole feeding tube phobia drives me nuts.

My mother-in-law has required a feeding tube twice in the last few years while recovering from two serious illnesses. In each case, she got over the illness and the tube came out. It shouldn't be too much to ask that medical people differentiate between feeding tubes that allow people to recover from temporary illnesses and feeding tubes that become necessary when the patient can no longer eat due to end-stage Alzheimer's - although I'd never say that the Alzheimer's patient should starve either.

WJS thank you for all you do. You'll never know ho...

2007-12-17T12:01:00.000-08:00

WJS thank you for all you do. You'll never know how much encouragment I receive from reading your articles and blog. The support I receive helps me continue to fight the good fight for my Dad.
I've been battling the medical community for the last 9 years on behalf of my father, who has Alzheimer's and myriad other health problems. It is my opinion, based on our experiences that the elderly and disabled are completely unwanted as patients by healthcare professionals.

It has been suggested to me that I "turn his [Dad's] pacemaker/defibrillator off and let him go" by one D.O. (who is no longer his primary physician) - because my mother, his wife "was dead, he is demented and can no longer go grocery shopping with you"....I kid you not! These were the reasons stated.
If not going grocery shopping is a reason for active euthanasia, then I should be killed at my advanced age of 51, because I hate to shop...but I digress!

Now that my father is in a nursing home I've been told by the attending doctor that there is "no way we will ever put in a feeding tube, SO DON'T EVEN ASK FOR ONE".
He can still eat on his own, thankfully, but I refused to sign a form saying that I didn't want a feeding tube for him.
Apparently his "DNR" isn't enough to satisfy their lust for his death. They want to keep all their options open, and shut off all of his to live out his life according to his Maker.
It's disgusting. But, we keep on fighting and advocating because to do anything less would be fatal...
Thank you.
Lois

HKR: I don't hate him, but de Gray is not the subj...

2007-12-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

HKR: I don't hate him, but de Gray is not the subject of this post. We can discuss it if I write of him again or the next time I bring up transhumanism. Thanks.

I do not understand why you hate Aubrey de Grey......

2007-12-16T23:07:00.000-08:00

I do not understand why you hate Aubrey de Grey... He said we have a right to life didn't he? I thought he wanted to cherish the value of human life, but you dismissed him when you were reviewing the transhumanism conference at Stanford.

Why did you dismiss him? Doesn't Aubrey de Grey have the perfect ethic to respond to the problem in health care?

nurse: Thanks very much for dropping by and sharin...

2007-12-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

nurse: Thanks very much for dropping by and sharing your concerns. I think that we are in the path of a perfect storm. Money is drying up and utilitarian ethics are devaluing the expensive to care for. It is going to be a bumpy ride.

Unfortunately too often "caring" isfrequently miss...

2007-12-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately too often "caring" is
frequently missing in Health care today. If the life of a loved one is devalued by the treating professionals, their family by extension can also be devalued.

Increasingly I am seeing a hardened
attitude by medical professionals in their attitude in treating individuals who are not likely "to get better". They instead prefer to devote their efforts and energy caring for patients who will "get better and recover".

Those with long term, chronic conditions are often treated as though they are less than human.
The values of the professionals are imposed on the patient.

This was in the USA.

2007-12-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

This was in the USA.

So this was with the NHS right? Or the United Stat...

2007-12-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

So this was with the NHS right? Or the United States?

But what about our right to life? Humans have a right to live as a long as they wish to. How come no one pays attention to this right?