I have told my parents time and again that I do not wish to be kept alive artificially. I am tempted to have a living will after the Shavio case, I do NOT want to be kept in a vegetative state with my family tugging away at my fate in court. My parents have also expressed their distaste over being kept alive artificially so I'm pretty sure if I had to make a decision, I'd 'pull the plug' so to speak.
Also, as a future physician, I would have no personal qualms about giving pain medication to a terminal patient even if it hastens their death if that is their wish (to relieve pain). However, the legal ramifications may force me to tell my patients 'no' on this....
My personal belief is that our purpose is not to prolong life indefinitely at all cost because if that was true, shouldn't we be up in arms over the obesity epidemic in this country?
Forget the Shavio case, overeating will kill more people than anything else, and it too is done willfully. Just surviving on a full diet will decrease your life span substantially. According to studies published in
Nature (and my physio professor), the ONLY way scientists have discovered to prolong life is to subsist at a starvation level---barring diseases that may kill you, evidently, being really skinny actually drastically reduces cancer and other diseases in old age.
Does that mean we should start a campaign to put everyone on starvation diets? I mean, it would prolong life....should we ban junk food?
I don't believe so.
Life is meant to be lived, we don't just prolong it at all costs. If a sick and dying person decides they no longer want to live with pain, then how is letting them leave this world peacefully any worse than allowing people to gorge themselves on unhealthy food stuff?
What I mean is, we expect to make sacrifices on our lifespan in order to fully enjoy it---that includes eating junk food, going to buffets, not exercising, drinking alcohol, smoking etc. We know it's bad for us, but most of us do it anyway because we don't exist just to exist, we exist to live.
If a sick person decides their quality of life has gotten to the point where it is no longer worth living, I don't see how hastening their death is any worse than doing all the other things we do to our bodies in order to make our life 'livable'. We make choices everyday, sacrificing our health (so to speak) to make our quality of life better. I guess I find allowing myself an easier death as a continuation of that.
It's a strange an warped logic I know, but it's 2am.
