4 ms·
Active euthanasia (stuff beyond DNR) for mental conditions is a non-starter because it is impossible to get a valid statement of the patient's preferences. You
by tamana 11y ago
Active euthanasia (stuff beyond DNR) for mental conditions is a non-starter because it is impossible to get a valid statement of the patient's preferences.
You can't write a valid living will that says "kill me if I forget who my wife is twice a day for a week".
- coldpie 11y agoIt's a difficult problem, to be sure. I feel like what sokoloff went through is maybe not the optimal solution. I don't know.
- sokoloff 11y agoWhat I went through was vanishingly small compared to my grandmother and father. It cemented in my dad a resolve to self-euthanize at the first sign of a progressive mental degradation. Of course, the first sign is "too early" to be optimal as well, but no one wants to wait until it's too late. In a strange twist of fate, he experienced this fall a temporary but rapid decline in function due to a treatable (and subsequently treated) physical condition that manifested itself over a 10 day period. Now recovered, I'm sure he's glad he didn't off himself. I don't have any easy answer, even having had these experiences. There's little question my grandfather would not have wanted to live as he did the last 18 months of his life, but still epsilon chance he prefered whatever his life was to nothingness and even if not, was 17 or 19 a "more right" answer? How do you distinguish "routine" "what did I come downstairs for again?!" from more serious progressive degenerative diseases? Who knows...