4 ms·
The following is my point of view. I understand some people have a different point of view, and I don't have a problem if they make it known, and their familie
by csense 14y ago
The following is my point of view. I understand some people have a different point of view, and I don't have a problem if they make it known, and their families and health care providers respect their wishes.
But from where I sit, the dying doctors' point of view, as presented in this article, struck me as irrational.
Axiom: Being dead is better than being alive. Under all circumstances.
I personally believe this axiom, very strongly. I'd rather spit in the eye of death with my last breath than go quietly into the night.
It logically follows, then, that a treatment that has a 1% chance of working is better than doing nothing, if the latter has a 0% chance of working, no matter how extreme the treatment is.
Living longer, even in a state of constant extreme pain, is better than dying. Well, maybe dying peacefully would be less painful for my relatives, but again, I personally place a much higher value on my own life than my family's feelings of sadness or whatever.
The only question which remains is the validity of the Axiom. If this world is all there is, if when you die there isn't an afterlife or reincarnation or whatever...then the Axiom is clearly true.
If you have strong religious belief, then perhaps your afterlife is better. But only a perfect belief that you are headed to a better place makes it rational to give up. If you have a little bit of doubt -- if you're 99% sure you're going to Heaven but 1% of you whispers that maybe there's nothing and you'll turn into dust instead -- you still want to put off rolling that die as long as you can. Ditto if you're 100% sure there's an afterlife and 99% sure you've been good enough to get into Heaven, but 1% of you says that maybe Hell is where you're headed.
If your religion forbids suicide, and there's a chance that the Judge who will weigh your life will interpret not opting for the best available medical treatment as equivalent to suicide, then that affects your decision too. Although, to be fair, this cuts both ways: The suffering you cause your family by lingering beyond your time on Earth might count against you too. Literally "Damned if you do, damned if you don't." It's unclear enough that there should really be a few more commandments or something, to address all the corner cases.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoEverybody is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but you would really choose six months in a hospital bed, puking your guts out over three months of a reasonable quality of life? It's one thing if fighting means a 50% or greater chance of making it five years; it's quite another if fighting it means a matter of months.
- btilly 14y agoMy wife is a doctor. For her, seeing people die horrible deaths is not an abstract possibility. It is something that she's seen far more of than she wants, and is likely to see in the future again more than she wants. Despite having no particular religious views, she would disagree with your "axiom" in the strongest of possible terms. So would I. I am not religious, but my preferences include not suffering horrible pain. I also am against causing severe emotional and/or financial distress for people I care about. Those preferences lead to there being situations where I am literally better off dead than alive, and I have made sure that my wife is aware of what those situations are so that she can make that decision for me if I am incapacitated and it needs to be made.
- nmcfarl 14y agoMy wife is a doc as well. Her opinions and experiences map to you wife’s, mine to yours. This is not about life being better than death. This is about the amount of pain and suffering you cause yourself and others while fighting off death.
- philwelch 14y agoHow old are you? Have you ever been hospitalized? Have you ever had a family member hospitalized? It's easy to sit back and pontificate that you'd choose heroic medical treatment over whatever the alternative might be if you've never actually seen what that entails. It's a lot harder when you see that for most people, especially older people, it's an experience akin to being imprisoned and then tortured to death. A hospital is an awful place to spend the last moments of your life.
- 11Blade 14y agoHuman life is sacred. It is a noble statement. I don't think there is anything wrong with your belief (about spitting in death's eye), except life isn't measured well as a binary option (dead or alive). (dead better than life) In many circumstances death is by far better than life. You need to factor in the quality of life. Its really what's important. Take diseases like Alzheimers and neurodegenerative diseases. If I can't take care of my activities of daily living, and do not mentate - why on earth would I want to spend another day on this earth. We can keep people alive for a terminally long time with tube feedings, rectal tubes and catheters and IV medications. Doesn't make living better than death. It also doesn't not mean that one decided to go quietly into the night. Suffering is suffering, sometimes its better to stop suffering.
- quasque 14y agoYou speak as if death is not an inevitable destination. You're not immortal, you know. You can't stave off your demise forever. One day your existence will end and your consciousness will be permanently obliterated. With that in mind, do you really want to be physically and mentally tortured in the last few days, weeks or months of your existence? How about at some time in the middle of your life? It all amounts to the same thing, in the end.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- martininmelb 14y agoHow about if you were in a lot of pain and were told that you can take a pain killer but it would likely shorten your life (not necessarily a hypothetical choice)?