Thursday, October 05, 2006
Thursday Thirteen
1. Yesterday Stormii was telling some of those funny-sad stories about the activities of a woman with Alzheimer's -- she walks around the retirement home with soiled panties, accusing everyone she sees of breaking into her apartment and shitting in her pants.
2. This segued into a discussion of being on life support. I said, if I die, do NOT resuscitate me, do NOT keep me on life support. Guppy said don't ask him to enforce that.
3. Guppy thinks he would want to be kept alive no matter what his condition. I think being kept alive artifically is not living, only existence, with no more soul than a slug.
4. My father had leukemia, and when he developed pneumonia, he was hospitalized. They needed to put him on a respirator, so they gave him "enough drugs to sedate an elephant" because he was fighting with what little strength he had. I will never forget walking into his hospital room. He was still upright, still fighting, and his eyes were those of an animal caught in a trap. His look to me plainly said "For the love of God, get me out of here!"
5. For the next 3 weeks, my father lay there with a tube in every orifice of his body. He went into ICU psychosis, which isn't an actual coma, but looks exactly like one to the family. I hinted, then stated, and finally battled with the doctors, my brother and my mother to take my father off life support and let him die with some dignity. There was no hope of recovery; they were only prolonging his agony.
6. The cynic in me says that they were prolonging the Medicare payments.
7. This was my first exposure to the fact that even though you can make your wishes clearly known before you ever get sick, your family can totally ignore those wishes.
8. I do not ever want to be a vegetable, yet my children could force that on me someday.
9. Here is the $64 question: is it ethical to honor the wishes of a dying person, even if you believe that following their wishes constitutes a form of murder?
10. By the same token, if someone has indicated that they want their body kept alive by any means and you believe that is the most perverted way of playing God, are you obligated to follow their wishes?
11. Whose conscience takes precedence: yours or the person who is dead/dying/beyond recovery?
12. If you follow someone else's wishes against your own conscience, are you making a loving sacrifice, taking on a burden of guilt for the rest of your life, or are you guilty of moral cowardice? And if you follow your conscience instead of doing what that person wanted, are you being true to your moral principles or just selfish?
13. There are no good answers here. Each side can buttress their position with the "will of God" argument. But more and more of us are going to have to deal with this situation. The experts say to talk about it with your family in advance. But what do you do when some of your family sees things in a totally different way?
2. This segued into a discussion of being on life support. I said, if I die, do NOT resuscitate me, do NOT keep me on life support. Guppy said don't ask him to enforce that.
3. Guppy thinks he would want to be kept alive no matter what his condition. I think being kept alive artifically is not living, only existence, with no more soul than a slug.
4. My father had leukemia, and when he developed pneumonia, he was hospitalized. They needed to put him on a respirator, so they gave him "enough drugs to sedate an elephant" because he was fighting with what little strength he had. I will never forget walking into his hospital room. He was still upright, still fighting, and his eyes were those of an animal caught in a trap. His look to me plainly said "For the love of God, get me out of here!"
5. For the next 3 weeks, my father lay there with a tube in every orifice of his body. He went into ICU psychosis, which isn't an actual coma, but looks exactly like one to the family. I hinted, then stated, and finally battled with the doctors, my brother and my mother to take my father off life support and let him die with some dignity. There was no hope of recovery; they were only prolonging his agony.
6. The cynic in me says that they were prolonging the Medicare payments.
7. This was my first exposure to the fact that even though you can make your wishes clearly known before you ever get sick, your family can totally ignore those wishes.
8. I do not ever want to be a vegetable, yet my children could force that on me someday.
9. Here is the $64 question: is it ethical to honor the wishes of a dying person, even if you believe that following their wishes constitutes a form of murder?
10. By the same token, if someone has indicated that they want their body kept alive by any means and you believe that is the most perverted way of playing God, are you obligated to follow their wishes?
11. Whose conscience takes precedence: yours or the person who is dead/dying/beyond recovery?
12. If you follow someone else's wishes against your own conscience, are you making a loving sacrifice, taking on a burden of guilt for the rest of your life, or are you guilty of moral cowardice? And if you follow your conscience instead of doing what that person wanted, are you being true to your moral principles or just selfish?
13. There are no good answers here. Each side can buttress their position with the "will of God" argument. But more and more of us are going to have to deal with this situation. The experts say to talk about it with your family in advance. But what do you do when some of your family sees things in a totally different way?
6 Comments:
I agree with you but I have only talked to my husband about this and we both share the same opinion. No artificial life help...I want to leave this party while I am still conscious and having fun.
Tough issue...
Happy TT anyways!
I will beat gup up for you if the decision has to be made.....in my case, no one better make me live on any type of life support....let me go.....I don't want to live that way and I don't want to put that kind of burden or responsibility on any of my family members. Just let go, I don't want to be remembered like that anyway.
Wow, that was a rather deep list.
Thanks for sharing.
Happy TT!
This is a good list of 13. I can related to what you're saying. My hubby was on a resperator for 3 months, but he was conscious and had to have a trach done. But before that, he had to be intubated and they had a hard time because he fought them also in the ER. And the trauma caused him to have a slight heart attack. He was happier with the trach, but he finally got too weak and his heart was failing. So I asked them not to resuscitate. I could not see him suffer anymore and let him go to be in peace without pain.
Thanks for stopping by.
I agree with you, maybe I've just seen too many people suffer.
I don't want to live like that. I think a person's own personal wishes should come first. I think keeping someone alive artifcially is wrong (and selfish) especially if they don't wish it.
Deep stuff, and no real answers, as you say. Have you seem the Emma Thompson piece 'Wit'? It was what made me finally decide that I wanted to get married. I want B to be the one to turn my life support off, or decide not to - he's the one I trust to make the right decision - for me, for him, for the circumstances. Don't watch it unless you're feeling robust.
Post a Comment
<< Home