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Page 216 text:
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MEICY MLLMG . . . SbW U ' Et Ah 9 Cases which tell how peoples private !ives should be practiced are the most controversial and the most difficult to settle. This point was exemplified most during the 1973 decision of Roe vs Wade in favor of legalizing abortion. Since then such cases as school prayer, hand gun control and flag burning are just some of the many issues which have brought about much controversy as well as violence. But out of these cases have risen a subject matter that is elevated onto a plane of its own. This is the case of whether patients and families of pa- tients who are terminally ill have the right to halt treatment — or even to help along the death of these people. For over seven years Nancy Cruzan, now 32, has done nothing but lay in a coma. She has not laughed, cried or spoken a word. Since her car crash on an icy night, she has lain so still for so long that her hands have curled into claws. Nurses must put napkins between the palms of her hands and her nails so the skin is not torn. According to Nancy ' s parents and doctors she is and will not be getting better However, Nancy is not on a respirator. She is breathing on her own. The only thing isolating Nancy from the rest of the world is that she will not wake up and she is on a feeding tube. Without this tube Nancy will no longer live. Nancy ' s parents are so con- vinced that she would not want to go on this way that they have asked the courts for authorization to remove her feeding tube and let her go . A lower court judge gave that permission, but the Mis- souri Supreme Court, affirming the sanctity of life, reversed the ruling. The Cruzans have appealed the reversal and now the U.S. high court must consider whether the federal Constitution ' s right to liberty gaurantees, and the privacy rights they invoke, include the right to be starved to death for mercy ' s sake. According to News Weeks March 19, 1990 article on the subject over 10,000 other patients in the U.S., like Cruzan and their families are waiting and watching. In a poll conducted last month for Time Cnn by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 80% of those surveyed said decisions about ending the lives of terminally ill patients who cannnot de- cide for themselves should be made by their families and doctors rather than lawmakers (News Week). Over 81% of the people polled believe the doctor should be allowed to withdraw life- sustaining treatment of unconcious pa- tients if instructions were left to do so in a preconceived living will. 57% believe it is all right for doctors in such cases to go even further and administer lethal injections or provide lethal pills. Though statutes and court rulings may acknowledge what is and is not legal they are unable to ease the personal dilemmas which family members and patients have when making such a deci- sion. The reasons leading to such actions are long and thought out. The condi- tions under which one come to such a decision are not always understandable. In case of the family members it is usually that a member of their family has come to a point in which they will never recover. Whether the patient is in a coma or in so much pain that they can not choose for themselves then it is left to the patients family to decide. Pete Busalacchi, whose daughter Christine has layed in the same Missouri reha- bilitation center for over two years com- mented, This has been a 34- month funeral. It would have been best if she had died that night. Christine was also comatose however she is able to breath naturally. The only level of life support she has is through a feeding tube. Busa- lacchi believes a family ' s private tragedy should not be a battle ground for right- to-life interest goups, judges or politi- cians (News Week). As for those patients who are terminally ill many feel they have the right to take their life and die with dignity. Many do not wish to be tethered to a battery of machines in an intensive-care unit like a laboratory specimen (News Week). Oth- ers feel that they should not have to endure that amount of pain. Finally others felt that since death is inevitable that they should have the choice in how they should die. There are many reasons as to why peo- ple are opting to turn off life machines and take their own lives. Not only is it for personal relief but also for economic relief. The costs to keep a person in a hospital is unruly and as time goes by the costs keep sky rocketing. In New York it costs a person $172 dollars a day for a comatose patient. That is a flat fee and does not include fees paid for spe- cialized doctors, medicine, technicians and so on. If a patient has cancer the cost of chemotherapy alone can run into the thousands of dollars in just a couple of months. So, the question is if there is no hope then does a person or family mem- bers have to pay to have life continued? Life which may never be enjoyed. Advocates against the legalization of mercy killing are strong and wide. The most vocal are the right-to-life groups which accredit their stance against the issue based on theology that places the entire debate in a different context, that of a family of faith that tends most lovingly to its weakest members. The sanctity of human existence, they argue, does not depend on its quality or its cost. What God gives only he can take away, and to act upon that right is an act of grave hubris. However, even in their reactions areas of grey are uncovered in the community of faith. Though suffer- ing is part of Judeo Christian theology, compassion dictates that a patient in terrible pain should be allowed to die. The Roman Catholic church radified this position as in 1980 the Vatican de- clared that refusing treatment is not equivalent to suicide, but rather an ac- ceptance to the human condition. ..or a desire not to impose excessive expenses upon the family or community. (News Week) In the U.S. we have a Sanctity of life law which says all human life is pre- cious. Thus, to take a human life know- ingly is a wrongful act which is punish- able by law. Like most laws or decisions the right to life law is also being clouded over by other rights. Like the right to choice and the right to privacy. The laws are unsettled. Over the past 50 years in 20 mercy killing cases only three defen- dents have been sentenced to jail. Issues of such personal nature are the toughest to judge upon. If going by the laws of the bible then the answer is supposed to be clear and precise. But as stated earlier it is not. To go by the laws of the land the answer is ever changing. The ultimate decision lies on the family and patients hands. It is up to the indi- viduals and their families to weigh the circumstances. There is no right or wrong answers, only individual an- swers. Suzi Shoemaker Information and quotes for this article was made possible by News Week maga- zine. II
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