Over in England, there is a newborn who can not see, can
not breathe on his own, can not hear, can not swallow, is prone to severe
Epilepsy, and so on. The doctors want to "pull the plug", the parents DO
NOT.
First, I can relate to the parents situation, wanting to do and try everything
to save their child.
I can also understand, from both sides of the hospital's viewpoint to not try
anything else.
I am for (and don't forget this is an opinion page) unplugging life support and
letting nature take its course.
How can I be SO cold you say?????
I don't make this comment lightly, but just in case YOU are wondering why I said
this,
LET ME EXPLAIN A FEW THINGS TO YOU FIRST SO YOU DON'T THINK I'M A COLD AND
SELFISH FUCKWAD!!!
FIRST..... I have a severely handicapped daughter. She does not walk or
talk. She has a genetic disease called Partial Tri-Somy 23, where she has
an extra chromosome. She was born with a cleft palate, which was fixed;
she was born with crossed-eyes, which was fixed; she was born with several skin
tags, which were removed and have not grown back, she was born severely
retarded; and the biggest thing, she was born with a "blue-baby" heart, where
there is a hole between the fresh and used blood sides of the heart, which was
also fixed by open heart surgery at one year.
Jenny is now 37 years old, and will never get any better. She is a very
loving girl, and has a zest for living like no other. She loves going out
to eat, and of course, dad spoils the shit out of her. She loves to just
go places to see and watch what is happening around her. She loves going
anywhere there are vivid smells, sights, and sounds, especially music. At
night she turns into a little cuddle-bug :-)
I would do ANYTHING to protect and save her!!! She is irreplaceable!
SECOND..... My sister. My sister died 2 years ago in 2015. It was an
especially nasty death, not that she was aware of it. Her liver, kidneys,
and pancreas decided to call it quits, I'm sure you can guess why since she was
only 61. Before we found her advance directive at her home, Mercy Hospital
put her on life support - roughly 10 thousand bucks a day. She had so many
IV machines pumping stuff into her is wasn't funny. Then, about 5 days in,
they added a dialysis machine into the mix.
All the while, throughout all of this, my main question was: if you somehow
bring her back from the edge of darkness, what kind of quality of life can we
expect for her? None of the doctors we asked could come back with even a
so-so positive outlook for her. The biggest problem was, those three
organs which we all rely on, are now producing toxic by-products which are
damaging the brain. A no-win situation, getting worse with every passing
hour. Being her only living relative, it was in my hands alone to make
decisions about her care and future. Not wanting to make any decision on
my own, I relied on the inputs from her two best friends Beth and Becky, my
daughter Tina, and my wife Dianne. We are all compassionate people and
labored over the decision.
When you looked into my sister's eyes, there was nothing there - just a vast, unending
darkness (no shit, it was very eerie to say the least!). There was
no brain activity going on that any of us could see. No responses of any
kind. When I look into Jenny's eyes, there is so much life in there it is
overflowing!
After a week, and she was not getting any better, I started inquiring about
letting nature takes its course by pulling the plug. Now that she was on
life support, the hospital pushed back. I kept trying to get some sort of
positive answer out of any doctor about her recovery to no avail. Finally,
we got a doctor one evening that objectively looked at the facts, and offered to
unplug her life support. With heavy heart, I told them to 'do-it".
SO, UNTIL YOU ARE FACED WITH THE SAME SITUATION OF HAVING TO MAKE A LIFE OR
DEATH DECISION WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE, NO-ONE HAS
A RIGHT TO TELL ANYONE WHAT THEY SHOULD DO. They don't even have a basis
by which to form an opinion!!!
My sister a few days before the end. This is living?
That's a dialysis machine on the left..... And about 12 bags of fluids dripping
into her.....
So, even if the doctor's were able to save baby Charlie's life, without any of
those "things" we take for granted: hearing, seeing, speaking, swallowing, breathing,
and possibly thinking, what kind of
life can the child expect if he were to recover sufficiently to stay with us
without being on life support for his entire life? What kind of "quality of life" can he have?
Same thing went for my sister. IT IS NOT FAIR TO THE BOY, HIS PARENTS,
YOU, AND ME, WHO WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR HIS SUPPORT FOR HIS WHOLE LIFE!!! Yes, Helen Keller was able to overcome those disabilities (at least her brain
was functioning at full tilt!), but if you have a feeding tube and a breathing
tube down your throat for your whole life, can't go anywhere - again, what kind of
quality of life is that? This is why I am in favor of letting nature take
it's course, and letting him "go". The parents, in the end, would also
have a better quality of life if they had another child who is not blessed with
these problems.
Just because we now have the ability to save lives from almost every conceivable
malady doesn't always mean we should.
Besides, if we can be humane to animals, why can't we be humane to humans????
I don't get it.
