N.H. eyes assisted suicide measure

[BLocal]

Tamarac wrote:

Sorry the word I meant to post was 'support'. As for your last comment on my compassion or lack of, I was questioning what ultimate control of ones life might look like. I notice that you have great difficulty with objectivity. My own bias is that (baring mental illness) I believe it is an incredibly selfish and cowardly act to involve another person in purposfully ending your life.

If you had actually read what I had written about our relative - you would have read that she had made a living will quite some time before her hospitalization while she was still in good health.

She wasn't cowardly in the least and she was quite clear about what she wanted. Of course since she was unresponsive and on a respirator after being in an accident, it was then up to her family to see that her living will was honored.

Your comments on objectivity made me laugh - where in your comments have you remained objective about any of this discussion?

My comments have all agreed with the group of people that believe that something as personal as the end of life should remain in the hands of the individual and their doctor with the individuals wishes being honored.

A blanket statement that these people are cowardly is about as non-objective as a comment could be - it sounds to me like your opinion. Which by the way - is what any forum topic is about - people's opinions.

[Tamarac]

What you missed is that removing life support is not assisted suicide. It sounds like your relative should never have been placed on life support per their living will? I hope someone reached a nice fat settlement against the hospital?

[BLocal]

Tamarac wrote:

What you missed is that removing life support is not assisted suicide. It sounds like your relative should never have been placed on life support per their living will? I hope someone reached a nice fat settlement against the hospital?

I didn't miss anything - so one more time - it was the Born Again Christian of the family that said removing the respirator was assisted suicide. Not me or anyone else in the family.
The hospital put her on a respirator because she had been in an accident - something she could have recovered from but sadly she took a turn for the worse. We had all talked to her over the years and understood her wishes and it wasn't not to have any medical care at all in a situation such as this. When recovery didn't happen and this had gone on for a month - that was when the living will kicked in.
No - we didn't sue the hospital - they were all wonderful and caring and did everything they could in this situation. There were group meetings with the whole family and everything was discussed -the way it should be in this kind of medical situation.
Not everything is as cut and dry as you seem to think it will be at the end of someone's life. So even though people make living wills - there are a lot of variables that need to be considered by the people that will make the decisions when the person in question can not do it.