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a life worth living
Dec. 1st, 2004 12:57 pmOne of yesterday's AP World News headlines concerned a hospital in the Netherlands which has admitted to euthanizing terminally ill infants and has proposed guidelines for child euthanasia. The article is here. I get the impression that the infants killed are ones who would have died within months even with continued life support, and who would have been in pain for their remaining life. However, the article reminded me of other situations.
I work at a long term care hospital. One area of the hospital is devoted to care of the developmentally disabled: people with severe mental or physical handicaps, generally both. These are mostly children, but one of my co-workers, who has worked here for several years in different capacities, said there are a few adults as well. She was telling me some weeks ago about a woman in her early forties whose mental development stopped at the age of two months. I asked her how the two month age was determined; she said there are certain things a baby can do at one month old, and more things at two months old, and so forth.
So this woman can cry and smile. She likes sweet food. She enjoys being taken outdoors. In fact, my co-worker complained that the mother, who has legal responsibility for the woman, will not permit her to be taken outside (one has to sign liability waivers, I guess) or to do certain other things requiring consent forms which might have brought the woman some joy. My co-worker views this as state-sanctioned child abuse.
But I'm getting sidetracked. Is the retarded woman suffering? Certainly her life is pretty mean. My father has remarked more than once that if he were to become so disabled that he couldn't do much of anything, he'd rather die. As a teenager, I used to say abortion was unethical but suicide was okay. Then it was pointed out to me that life is a gift from God and should be regarded as belonging to him, not to ourselves, which makes ending one's own life a sin. I agree with this. Yet it seems to me the reason for not killing a person like the retarded woman, or rather, for continuing to take care of her, should not rely on religion. I can't put the idea into words right now.
I think that's the closest I'm going to come to a point, so I'll stop here.
I work at a long term care hospital. One area of the hospital is devoted to care of the developmentally disabled: people with severe mental or physical handicaps, generally both. These are mostly children, but one of my co-workers, who has worked here for several years in different capacities, said there are a few adults as well. She was telling me some weeks ago about a woman in her early forties whose mental development stopped at the age of two months. I asked her how the two month age was determined; she said there are certain things a baby can do at one month old, and more things at two months old, and so forth.
So this woman can cry and smile. She likes sweet food. She enjoys being taken outdoors. In fact, my co-worker complained that the mother, who has legal responsibility for the woman, will not permit her to be taken outside (one has to sign liability waivers, I guess) or to do certain other things requiring consent forms which might have brought the woman some joy. My co-worker views this as state-sanctioned child abuse.
But I'm getting sidetracked. Is the retarded woman suffering? Certainly her life is pretty mean. My father has remarked more than once that if he were to become so disabled that he couldn't do much of anything, he'd rather die. As a teenager, I used to say abortion was unethical but suicide was okay. Then it was pointed out to me that life is a gift from God and should be regarded as belonging to him, not to ourselves, which makes ending one's own life a sin. I agree with this. Yet it seems to me the reason for not killing a person like the retarded woman, or rather, for continuing to take care of her, should not rely on religion. I can't put the idea into words right now.
I think that's the closest I'm going to come to a point, so I'll stop here.
