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I Hope My Father Dies Soon

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Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#101

Post by rodgerd »

badman_ting wrote: post #76

Sorry, but I am getting really tired of this form of discourse. A million interests prevent you from doing a million things every day, but apparently it's only objectionable and worth remarking about when it's the government. And it's not even like I disagree with him -- yes we should allow assisted suicide. But boy oh boy is it hard not to notice that he wastes no time thinking about why things are this way, or whic…

If he wants to blames someone, he'd to better to blame usually religious-based lobby groups. But that wouldn't fit into his usual narratives, so I guess the government it is.

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#102

Post by Houshalter »

melling wrote: post #13

The Singularity is about 30 years out, or so we're led to believe. It takes about 10 years and billions of dollars to create a new drug, and that time and cost is not decreasing. Stories like this are a grim reminder of how much work we really must do. "Fixing" the human body is a really hard problem.

I'm more worried the Singularity will result in everyone dying anyways, or possibly far worse.

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#103

Post by pantalaimon »

ars wrote: post #73
marquis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works very well in countries such as the Netherlands, I've seen that first hand in cancer cases. It is the most dignified thing to do for a thinking person. Do you have examples where a large percentage of the cases are obvious malpractice? I have long planned that I will do everything in my power not to stay on life support, and recommend you do the same for the sake of your family and your sanity.

> not to stay on life support It's not such a simple decision. I know someone who was on life support and minimally conscious and recovered from there to more or less normal health. It would be better to specify something like: no life support provided there is also no cognitive ability for 2 months. That gives at least a chance of recovery.

There is a difference if you had a car accident and are 20 years old or if you are having terminal cancer at 80.

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#104

Post by MetaCosm »

usefulcat wrote: post #80
MetaCosm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is important to understand that unless you build an "extreme" living will (food and water denial), there are many circumstances where you will still be tortured indefinitely. I speak from family experience. My father suffered many strokes towards the end. This caused neuropathic pain ... completely untreatable pain coming from inside his brain (primary somatic sensory cortex). He lost his ability to speak, move, a…

If you don't mind saying, in what country did this take place?

USA. It was absolutely illegal, but it was also IMHO, the only moral thing to do.

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#105

Post by k-mcgrady »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #26

Since this concerns the U.S. government, I'll say that the vendetta against euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide by the Christian right is puzzling. The Bible has a very ambivalent view on suicide (as with any other topic), the tale of Samson being a prime example. The main argument against suicide comes from Corinthians, but it is starkly contradicted by other passages. A person who is slowly succumbing, immobile,…

>> "The Bible has a very ambivalent view on suicide"

I thought the argument against it was simply the commandment 'thou shalt not murder'.

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#106

Post by ahi »

Fortunately, doctors can still fiddle around the edges. My 96 year old grandmother went into the hospital last Thursday. After some tests it was concluded she would have a couple more months with rehab or maybe a couple weeks without. We decided to just have her loaded up with morphine and she passed on Sunday surrounded by her children. The morphine didn't kill her, her heart was mush, but it likely knocked some time and suffering off the end. It's unfortunate that we dont all get to die so gracefully.

I dont forsee euthanasia ever being legal in the US given the absurd response to medicare requiring just basic end of life planning with a doctor.

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#107

Post by shabble »

bulte-rs wrote: post #85
marquis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works very well in countries such as the Netherlands, I've seen that first hand in cancer cases. It is the most dignified thing to do for a thinking person. Do you have examples where a large percentage of the cases are obvious malpractice? I have long planned that I will do everything in my power not to stay on life support, and recommend you do the same for the sake of your family and your sanity.

It's actually regulated quite well here in te Netherlands. Strict protocols to follow by at least two "independant" doctors. Doesn't mean stuff never goes "awry" though.

is "awry" better or worse than the status quo?

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#108

Post by jlgaddis »

JshWright wrote: post #19

As broken as our system is (and Scott's obvious pain should make it clear that it _is_ broken), there are things you can do to make it suck just a little less. Please talk to your family and your doctor about your wishes in terms of life-sustaining care. Even in your 20's, in perfect health, please take some time to become informed about what the options are and how you can express what you want done or not done (thi…

Recently, I dated a nurse who worked on the cardiac floor of the hospital. She had patients who died every day.

One day, the subject of DNRs came up. Interestingly, she mentioned that "they're meaningless". When I asked her about it, she said that if, for example, I had a DNR but an immediately family member told them to "save me", they would disregard the DNR and do it.

The reasoning, she told me, was that regardless of what they did (save you versus letting you die) there was a chance of a lawsuit and that the hospital would rather be sued for saving your life.

(I'm sure it isn't this way everywhere.)

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#109

Post by jbooth »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #49
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #26

Since this concerns the U.S. government, I'll say that the vendetta against euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide by the Christian right is puzzling. The Bible has a very ambivalent view on suicide (as with any other topic), the tale of Samson being a prime example. The main argument against suicide comes from Corinthians, but it is starkly contradicted by other passages. A person who is slowly succumbing, immobile,…

> the Christian right insists that the agony be prolonged to a maximum I'm not aware of anyone of any ideological stripe who insists disproportionate medical measures must be taken to keep somebody alive. On the other hand, the Hippocratic oath far predates Christ. By the way, I'm not sure you understand Christianity's relationship to the bible. It's a small minority of Christians who subscribe to anything like the s…

I take it you don't remember the Terry Schiavo thing?

Re: I Hope My Father Dies Soon

#110

Post by bulte-rs »

shabble wrote: post #107
bulte-rs wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually regulated quite well here in te Netherlands. Strict protocols to follow by at least two "independant" doctors. Doesn't mean stuff never goes "awry" though.

is "awry" better or worse than the status quo?

Awry as in: there recently was a case in which a doctor disregarded protocols in several cases; this was undetected for quite a while. This always leads to discussions here in NL, not about euthanasia practice in general, but about the amount of control and the ethical "framework" surrounding the protocols.
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