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From: Nadine.Thomas@p1.f7.n300.z1.fidonet.org (Nadine Thomas)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Euthanasia
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Date: 25 Apr 91 21:30:09 GMT
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You're assuming that everyone believes in god (thus god's law) - not everyone
believes in that so they are not bound by other people's beliefs.

I appreciate the fact that you would not interfere with another person's choice
(living will) - I do not consider a living will morally wrong. I consider it
being realistic.  I would say the biggest problem is that we have gone so far
with medical miracles but not enough to `heal' the ones that are being `saved'
but only barely (ie: vegetative state after being revived). I do not see the
sense in that and until the medical model can not only revive but `cure' a person,
at least to a productive state (able to make decisions or be consciously aware
of what is going on or that could also include the state of retardation but
NOT when there is NO brainwave activities), then they might do well to either
leave well enough alone or honor living wills and encourage the courts to butt
out when STRANGERS are trying to step in where they don't belong.  IMHO, that
living will is a very serious, private decision that should be questioned by
NO ONE.

I used to be an EMT (emergency medical technician) in New York - upstate New
York as well as New York City.  I had to make decisions that were very difficult
sometimes - if I went on a call where someone was dead I had to acertain approximately
when they had died, their age, health, where they were found, how they were
found and then decide whether to attempt resusitation or not.  I am very thankful
those type decisions were not as often as I had to do CPR and bring them to
the hospital - usually, knowing they weren't gonna make it but doing it anyway
because one never knows if a miracle would happen - it never did.  The only
time that CPR was successful in the time I worked (several years) was when a
guy had a heart attack in a large office building in NYC and there happened
to be a doctor one flight up who started CPR within 3 minutes - we arrived and
took over, worked on him for a while and then he responded after what seemed
like an eternity - we got him to the hospital alive (just don't know if he made
it past that).
Perhaps the fact that I worked in the medical field gives me a more realistic
view of what goes on.  Watching family day after day sitting vigil - the days
turn into weeks, then months, some of the family decides to resume living their
own lives at the risk of alienation of those family members who decide to stay
at the hospital bed day after day - then before they know it the time stretches
to one year then several - the family member has been moved to a nursing home
and the vigil continues and continues and continues.... I have seen families
break up when one member refuses to come home and begin living life again, refusing
to acknowledge their loved one was not gonna just get up one day and be normal.

The reality of the medical model extending itself beyond its capabilities.
The worse was the children - It took everything in my power to get through dealing
with a child - seeing a child who had been healthy, normal, and alive and in
the bat of an eye becoming a body on a respirator and then going back to the
same children's hospital to transport another child and finding out the first
one mercifully had succumbed - but the one I was transporting would probably
live like this for 40 or 50 years if they were VERY UNLUCKY.  It tore me up.
 One thing it brought home to me was my vulnerability and my powerlessness over
what could happen to me if someone, who doesn't even know me, would interfere
with my wishes and I would not even have a say in the matter.

Nadine

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