Two recent news items caught my attention - due to the fact that both cases involved patients on life support system, but different circumstances around the cases, and how the system and the families were reacting to each case.
Case 1: Recently, there has been a lot of news about a teenage girl in the Bay area in California, who has been declared as brain dead after a botched Tonsillectomy (removal of Tonsils). The hospital wants to remove her from life support while the girl's mother insists on keeping her alive. The matter went to courts here, and the judge has ruled that the case needs a second opinion and hence, the girl will be kept on life support until another doctor confirms the diagnosis. As per the latest development, the judge has received the new diagnosis from a doctor from another hospital, and has ruled that the hospital can take her off life support, but halso given the rights to the family of the teen to appeal the ruling. The family, of course, is expecting a miracle to happen. Read more about it here.
Case 2: On the other hand, there is a case in Texas, where an expectant mother is lying brain dead, and the hospitals refuse to take her off life support even after her husband and parents are requesting the hospital to take her off life support. According to the husband, his wife (the patient), a 33 years old woman, had lost a close family member and had told him that she'd never want to be on a life support system. The girl's parents agree too. But, since the woman is pregnant, Texas State law puts the rights of a fetus over the wishes of the mother. The baby is now about 18 weeks old and, per the husband, the doctors have not considered long term effects of Oxygen deprivation. Read more about this here.
What do you guys think about these cases? Who is right?
2 comments:
Hello Sandeep Uncle, I didn't know you had a blog!!
Your blog entry goes to the heart of how our society views death. I think it is only dignified to let the family have the final say. They know the person the best and, in such cases, have responsibility to honor the wishes of their loved one.
The cases are very different though. One is a child (Case 1) and therefore never got the chance to weigh in on whether she wanted to be on life support or not. Her family clearly isn't ready to accept the reality of her situation.
In the second case, there is a baby, yet the family wants to honor the woman's wishes. What will be the long-term medical effects on the baby? We don't know.
But, in either case, I think it should be the family's decision. Each family needs their own time to accept and begin healing - in case 1, the family isn't ready; in case 2, the family may not be ready, but is honoring the woman's wishes.
In summary, such a heavy and private decision should be left up to the families and it is somewhat offensive (to me) that the courts are even involved.
It's Shireen, btw. I have no idea why my name shows up as "MooPow"...but it's growing on me ;)
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