Dutch Hospital Euthanizing Gravely Ill Babies

[MidasKnight]

Story


AMSTERDAM, Netherlands ? A hospital in the Netherlands (search) ? the first nation to permit euthanasia ? recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.

I'm not sure what to think of this. What's your thoughts ?

 

[Kibbo]

I'm ok with it. I don't see the point of keeping a terminally ill infant in pain for the two years of life they may have. It seems cruel.

 

[skyking]

From the above linked article:

"Measures that might marginally extend a child's life by minutes or hours or days or weeks are stopped. This happens routinely, namely, every day," said Lance Stell, professor of medical ethics at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody knows that it happens, but there's a lot of hypocrisy. Instead, people talk about things they're not going to do."

This happens with all ages of patients. it is all kept hush hush, due to the legal ramifications.
I think it is much better to get it out in the open. The reality is, our current system with the built in heroic efforts and huge cost are bankrupting the medical system, both morally and financially.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent each day on patients who will die, sure as the sun will set.
The lives are extended hours, days, months even, but there is absolutely no regard for the quality of life. In many cases, you could not devise a torture more agonizing thatn this extended "life".
That should be the crime, IMO.
Meanwhile, other patients die because they are denied expirimental lifesaving procedures, when they do have a chance at quality of life.