Ethics

Categories: spirituality, ethics

Tags: Ethics

Date: 11 March 2009 21:30:17

When is it right to say 'enough is enough' and stop medical treatment?  There is a line.  Somewhere.

I had a discussion with someone recently about this - she didn't want to 'play God' by turning off the machines.  Which I completely understood and respected, but there are times when the person is never going to be alive without X and Y and Z machine.  So, is it fair?  Is it ethical?  In a way, as I pointed out in this discussion, by using these machines, we are already playing God.  These people would have died already, if it hadn't been for the machines that we've invented.  Which of course, in many cases is a good thing, but there is a line which must be drawn at some point.  It is possible to keep a completely brain dead person 'alive' with machines.

These are all issues I have to quite frequently discuss, and therefore ponder upon.  But when suddenly they're being discussed about a member of my own family, it's completely different.  My Grandad was taken into hospital today.  And it doesn't sound good.

Every brain cell in my head tells me that he's had a very good life - he's 89 and he's certainly lived a fulfilled life.  If he deteriorates further, my medical knowledge knows that there isn't any point in massively up scaling treatment.  But my heart is still hugely saddened at the thought.