A doctors plea to care for the dying.
just read this article on the sunday times. somehow, this article sturck a chord in me. Read it and i hope it will do the same to you.
the first thing that realli make me do some thinking was the 'comfort care', about situations where doctors give an overdose of drugs to a patient with the intent of relieving pain and providing comfort, fully knowing that it will cause death. This grey area in law and medical science, between the 2 shores of Euthanasia and the Hippocratic Oath.
Hippocratic Oath ( modern version )
I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.
from wiki.
These is where grey areas are formed:
To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them.
This beneficial intention is the purpose of the physician.therefore, if u catch my drift, by prescribing an overdose of drugs, the doctors are kiping to the oath of prescriving for the good of my patients ( comfort ). yet in a way, they seem to have violate the oath of avoiding to harm them.
Thus many have judged the morality of the stiuation with the intent of the doctor. If it was intent to relieve pain and provide comfort, it is morally correct, yet if it were otherwise, then it is wrong.
Well the person i would pity the most in that situation is the doctor of having to try as much to fufil the patients wishes, be at conflict wth his own morality and oso wth the law of the state. The dilemma of relieving pain when it could be deliberately killing, or prolonging suffering when it could be waiting for that small ray of hope to shine through.
For me, yes i m supportive of euthanasia but it simply muz be a case by case basis. But still, when the time comes if i had ever to decide, i may not even b able to decide, such is the dilemma, so huge, that I m juz unable to grasp fully.
Well if i seem to b speaking incoherently and without sense, then pardon me cuz i juz wanna get these off my back.
the second thing i wanna talk about is the qoute at the end of the article, that dying is the hardest thing to do.
have u ever thot that when u die, how is it gonna b lyk, or perhaps the feeling of leaving your family and friends forever, or the second where u close your eyes for the final time. wad would it be lyk? n to no offence, among all these religious sayings of afterlife, deep down in my heart, logic still takes hold of me and i ask myself, wad will it be lyk, when time moves on and the chapter of your life ceases?
o well. juz read this article man. its great.
