Euthansia - Case Study
 

Thought I should do another Case Study Seriou Debate.

Case Study One
You and your husband have lived a long and happy life together, and you both requested if you become incapable to care for yourself, or loose 'your marbles' you will 'put to sleep' you partner.

Your husband is going to have to go into a home, he doesn't recognise any of his relations, or you, is incapable of holding his bladder, and often gets aggresive.

BUT you love him, and at time he seems to be happy, living in a 'world of his own'.

What do you do, break a promise, or break the law, and kill a loved one?

Even though I wouldn't have a husband (:tongue:) I'd keep the promise, I've been there before with another family member (but not helping them die obviously) and its not nice to see them unrecognisable and weak. Its a massive relief when they actually do die and as cruel as it sounds I was looking forward to it because it was that bad.

If you break the law by killing someone then you shall end up in prison, so it depends on how much you want your freedom basically. I believe in Euthenasia and wished that it was legal. We did a write up about it at school and I got top marks

We are learning Euthanasia in RE right now... okay, I know that is random, but yeah.

What you describe in this case study is Alzheimer's

See BBC information site

Alzheimer's Society

It would be better to get the involvement of these profesionals, and one would hope the care home would be experienced in dealing with this.

If through palliative care, the spouse was experiencing a quality of life, is there need to do anything irrevocable?

How many diseases that are curable today, were death sentences several years ago?

If he was not suffering and happy in his world, it would be best to leave him alive, and use him as a case study to help raise money for this terrible disease.

If you wish to donate to the Alzheimer's society click here

Details of the help line

I'd rather die than spend the rest of my days pissing my pants in a nursing home and smearing **** all over the walls

I am all about choice but at what point do we know in this particular example that our loved one is not happy and content in their world?

I developed an end of life training course that is now used nationally and spent a lot of time ensuring that the focus was choice and if not capable of making choices then that the national dignity agenda was adhered to.

mind you after a couple of haloperidols it might not seem so bad!

I agree with this. It is not always possible to tell when someone is not happy, and while I absolutely support the right of someone to end their life in such circumstances, it would be very difficult to make that decision for them. If it was someone I loved very much, I would want to do what they wanted, but it certainly would be a big burden to face.

I think I'm going to have to think about this for a while.