Death and Dying.

[donmurray]

In the UK this week, a paraplegic patient on a ventilator won a court battle for the right to choose to have it turned off. British law requires a patient's consent for any treatment, but the staff resisted her requests to exercise her right to refuse. They did offer to try to "wean" her off the vent, but she declined this as the process would be a further cause of pain and suffering to herself.

I am so glad not to be involved with this, but I think the judgement was right. Any thoughts?

[aimeee, BSN, RN]

I love this booklet Hard Choices for Loving People and I re-read it every so often. For those people who are in the process of beginning to let go, it really helps put things into perspective. I think it is hardest for people who have had a lot of problems with their relationships with their loved one. Their guilt overwhelms their decision making process.

Hard Choices for Loving People

[semstr]

I am so relieved, that this woman got her right and I do hope others will follow her thread.

Husband and I made a patientswill and a testament years ago, as we first traveled abroad without our daughter.

Take care, Renee

[mario_ragucci]

I can understand how these cases are tough ones, although some may appear obvious.

For example, if a person is in terrible and painful mental shape, do we allow them to die, as we would a person in terrible and painful physical shape? Can some mental afflictions be placed in the same arena as "right to die." It certainly is complicated, and not so cut and dried.

We all have rights, but health organizations have responsibilities. It's tough, because there are many in situations where they want to die, and a health organizations can't just give that "right" based on a patient's request.

[micro, RN]

a very fine line........................................................that we walk with these issues

[semstr]

well, in this case, from what I read about it, this woman was put on a ventilater against her will right from the beginning.

So in thic case a pretty "easy one" to catch.

In a lot of other cases, it is a hard decision to make.

Take care, Renee

[CindyCCRN]

Don, Hi! I'm not sure how I feel about the vent-dependent paraplegic woman in the UK and the court decision to remove her from the vent... don't have enough information. Obviously, her brain was ok. Was she simply depressed or lacked the desire/courage/knowhow to live with disability... I don't necessarily consider this "terminal" illness...

...Last year, I took an ethics 3 credit course on "Death and Dying" at a nearby college... Great class - alot of soul searching, complex insight, and massive information on the medical, social, legal, religious, and individual interpretations and implications of life, death, grief, and survival beliefs. I'd definitely recommend this class to any nurse who deals with terminally ill, critical patients, death and dying - all of us...

I agree with Mario that "the right to die" is a complex issue in many arenas, but then even medicine can never seem to agree on exactly what constitutes the quality of life/death... Some are

questioning their Hippocratic Oath or the Harvard Criteria for brain death...

Personally, with all the advanced technology in ICU, it sometimes isn't easy to tell the dead from the living... sad, huh... But I do certainly believe that everyone has the same right to a good death, as they do to a good life... Though we can't decide the time of our death, we sure should be allowed to decide where and how we want to die. Though, all our choices must be limited and governed by reasonable and humane laws (some do need to protect people from theirselves)...

..."You would know the secret of death. But how can you find it, unless you look in the heart of life" (Kahill Gibran)...