Mar 23 2006
Killing The Unwanted, Even When They Are Not Yours
This story is just hard to fathom. Two parents fight to keep their son alive on a ventilator while doctors decide they boy has no life worth living attempt to kill him.
In brief: A group of British doctors fought in court for the right to remove a fully-conscious little boy from a ventilator, over the objections of his parents, because they judged his quality of life to not be worth living. There’s more here about the case.
The boy, referred to only as MB in court papers, is conscious and awake. His parents want his ventilation to be continued. But they had to fight to do so over the objections of the doctors, who argue that it would be in MB’s “best interests” to be taken off of his ventilator.
The doctors should be removed from their positions because they are violating any number of oaths and covenants. But what is mind boggling is the pure incompetence of these so called doctors. I am 46 years old, which means there have been incredible medical advances in my lifetime. My 6 year old twins would not have survived if they were born at the time of the oldest sister in 1985! Medical advances in those short 14 years between them was incredible.
The point is, a boy on a ventilator today may be able to have complete freedom in 10, 20 or 30 years as medical advances tackle more and more challenges. These ‘doctors’ should know that better than anyone else. The fact they don’t grasp this is sufficient evidence they should not even be vetrinarians practicing on lab rats.
[Hat tip Pierre Legrand]
Guess they don’t subscribe to this :
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_classical.html
What a shame!
When I was little, there were large rooms in hospitals with rows of iron lungs for polio victims, who were often children.
I am glad this is rare now.
You younger people should see this second picture of a huge room with iron lungs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung
I visited a room like this with my dad, who was a doctor.
Barton Hebert of Covington, Louisiana, used an iron lung shown in the first picture from the late 1950s until his death in 2003.
The family stuck by him and donated the iron lung to the CDC museum when he died.
His family must have loved him a lot.
He went to college and wrote a book
http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1400.htm