End of Life

This presentation was very thought-provoking and close to home for me, personally...


My father, me and my 6 siblings chose to end my mothers life in 1996 as she lay in a coma after only one day. She had some complications from breast cancer--an onset of pneumonia. She was able to speak, talk, move around, etc., work, etc. She was not dying--she was just sick. We were all thinking we would be bringing her home in a few days.


After being hospitalized for 2 days, she had a routine procedure performed to explore the cause of the pneumonia. The "routine procedure" went wrong and she lapsed into a coma. She was not able to speak for herself, care for herself, or communicate and was living only through the support of machines. The doctors said she would not come out of the coma. There was no quality of life for her in her future and she did not have a living will. We made the decision to end life support. She died within minutes of discontinuing support.


The End of Life Video gave an intriguing view of issues we face everyday. I don't think we, as a family, thought through the decision as thoroughly as we should have. I didn't know our decision to end her life could be considered a legal issue...the doctor never said our decision could have legal implications. I think the end result would have been the same, but there was no discussion of the different viewpoints.

What would have happened if my dad wanted to discontinue support but my siblings did not? What if we would have taken her off of life support, and she would have remained breathing on her own and in a coma? How long would we wait before asking for doctor-assisted suicide? What if my mom wouldn't have agreed with our decision? (We all agreed she wouldn't have wanted to live that that, and knowing her money-saving ways, she would have been telling us to quit "wasting" money on keeping her alive!)


After watching the video (twice!) I most agreed with the Rev. John Paris, even though I am not catholic. He said only God can predict our future. We can live our life but we will go back to God in the end. He agreed that if medicine held no hope for Hope or Faith, he would support letting them die. He didn't agree with those that said they were "killing" them by taking them off support.


I really don't like that word "killing". With my mom's end of life event, I have NEVER thought of it that way. I wish I hadn't heard it now...


Chapter 10 was awesome to read. However, I had some conflicting thoughts on the terms. I don't like the words Euthanasia (that's what you do to your dog that got hit on the road), Mercy death/mercy killing (the killing part is obvious) but I don't like the "mercy" term. That should be reserved for someone who as a person or being, who lived a sorry life. My mom was anything but "sorry".

So ultimately, my position is that if no medical treatment can help the person life without being in a vegetative state, I support letting them die. I like that Chapter 10 separated the terms when speaking of Euthanasia.

The article that I found that related to the End of Life video was a great find. It is about a man in Minnesota who is being forced by a court order to have electroshock therapy for treatment of psychotic episodes. It doesn't sound like the man has really hurt anyone and is probably more of a danger to himself than anything. During his psychotic episodes, he urinates anywhere and eats his own feces.

Man Fights Order To Undergo Electroshock Therapy
by Lorna Benson
Listen Now [8 min 55 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98273451

This relates to the End of Life Video because the patient, Ray Sandford, doesn't want the treatment. It makes him sick, he forgets who people are, and every treatment slowly eats away at part of his memory. He doesn't want to live like that. Reading the comments that came in after the story aired on NPR, it sounds like it is painful, humiliating and a horrible treatment. In my opinion, there would HAVE to be other treatment methods without inflicting pain and degrading another human. Even if it is determined that Ray is not legally competent to discuss his treatment, EST cannot be a lifelong treatment plan. It would likely kill him. ( I thought we banned Electric Shock Therapy???)


In the End of Life Video, a couple of scenarios surfaced regarding the physicians. One doctor would not give Faith drugs to end her life. Also, the doctors argued about whether or not to give baby Hope the feeding tube. Even if the patient could not speak for themselves, there appears to be discontent between the physicians themselves.


Conclusion: We spoke for my mom when she couldn't and operated under the Divine Command Theory. We let her die a natural death. Our belief system says we were giving her eternal life. We did not need anyone to condone, support or direct us to our final decision. We acted under our own rules of Utilitarianism. We decided that ending life support was the right thing to do in this situation at this time. The greatest amount of good was ultimately for my mom, as she has a life with God. The "bad" came for us, who have had to live our lives without her.