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medpundit |
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Tuesday, November 18, 2003I think the point that is getting missed by the "is she alive/in a PVS/ aware or whatever" debate is the fact that an independant judiciary, after interviewing a number of people including her family and friends, decided that Terry had made it clear that she would not want to live in the condition she was in — whatever you want to call it. The panel did not substitute their judgement for hers, they attempted to apply her previously communicated desires to the situation she is in right now. In the system of medical ethics I was taught, patient autonomy trumps beneficence and non-malefecence and for a group of elected state officials to override that is troubling to me at best. Patient autonomy does trump all else in situations like this, but my impression from reading the news accounts is that Terri Schiavo's wishes were not known, and that the court relied on her husband's testimony as to what she would have wanted. (He stands to inherit a substantial amount of money if she dies, and he denied her usual and customary rehab after her initial brain insult, so he's a questionable witness.) That impression could be wrong, since it's based on news accounts, not the trial transcripts. The only reporting I could find about the trial itself was devoted entirely to the question of whether or not she was in a persistent vegetative state. If she indeed made it clear that she wouldn't want to be fed in a condition like this, then her family's wrong, and her husband's right. But, in this case, her wishes weren't known and the courts have decided that her husband has the last word (which is in fact what the law is in most states when a spouse is incapacitated and hasn't left instructions) even though he has obvious conflicts of interest. Maybe the law needs to be rewritten to account for such conflicts - which is what the Florida legislature is trying to do. The moral of the story is that living wills and powers of attorney for healthcare are important to have even if you're young. And you should share those documents and your wishes with your family. posted by Sydney on 11/18/2003 08:36:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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