“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Playing God and selfishly preserving a life?


I'm sure you've heard about the 18month old in Canada who is in a persistent vegetative state and kept alive by ventilator and feeding tubes. Canadian authorities won't release him to be taken to the US for continued care, essentially dooming him to the end of his life there at the hospital. We saw the same thing with Terri Schiavo, Karen Anne Quinlan, and others.

Obviously these tragic situations present difficult ethical, moral, and social questions. Here's my take:

In a persistent vegetative state, it is my understanding that only the primitive brain stem is functioning. There is no self-awareness or consciousness. The expressions, movements, and reactions to stimuli that family members report as proof of consciousness are simply rudimentary and coincidental movements associated with artificial life preservation. This means to me that keeping this person "alive", if you can call that existence life, serves only to provide a focal point for the family to direct their love and attendance. I contend that introducing in the first place, life-support tubes, is playing God rather than removing them is playing God. When all hope of recovery is lost, no humans body should be kept artificially alive for the pleasure of a family who cannot bring themselves to let go.

A dignified death is the least we should be able to expect from our loved ones.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

We know so very little about the human brain. There have been cases of people coming out of vegatative states after years of being that way. How many times have you heard that a doctor gave a person so long to live and not only did they live beyond the deadline some completely recovered. God alone knows the future. We need to leave the God stuff to God.

Ed said...

Wrong anon. Once in a great while somebody will recover from a coma. By heroically extending the life of a PVS patient by artificial means, are we not playing God in the first place?

Many people believe, I do not, that God must have meant this baby to have been born with this condition. (If God is in control of every thing and every thing has a purpose, what other conclusion must one draw?) If the condition is inconsistent with life, then who are we to alter the natural events and thwart God's intentions?

Anonymous said...

I am glad you are so atuned to God's inner thoughts and intentions. I am not, therefore I chose not to kill.

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