A woman was diagnosed with motor neuron disease 5 years ago. This is a condition

Question

A woman was diagnosed with motor neuron disease 5 years ago. This is a condition that destroys motor nerves, making control of movement impossible, while the mind is virtually unaffected. People with motor neuron disease normally die within 4 years of diagnosis from suffocation due to the inability of the inspiratory muscles to contract. The woman's condition has steadily declined. She is not expected to live through the month, and is worried about the pain that she will face in her final hours. She asks her doctor to give her diamorphine for pain if she begins to suffocate or choke. This will lessen her pain, but it will also hasten her death. About a week later, she falls very ill, and is having trouble breathing. Questions Does she have a right to make this choice, especially in view of the fact that she will be dead in a short while (say six hours)? Is this choice an extension of her autonomy? Is the short amount of time she has to live ethically relevant? Is there an ethical difference between her dying in 6 hours and dying in a week? What about a year, and how do you draw this distinction? Is the right for a patient's self-determination powerful enough to create obligations on the part of others to aid her so that she can exercise her rights? She clearly cannot kill herself. She can't move, but should someone be FORCED to help her, or to find someone to help her? Should the money used to care for this woman be taken into account when she is being helped? Do you think that legalizing euthanasia could create conflicts of interest for the patient/ or the doctor? Will people feel that they need to end their lives earlier to save money? If you were the physician, what would you do? Note: if you would pass her off to another doctor knowing he or she would do it, does this free you from you ethical obligations?

Explanation / Answer

1) Although euthanasia is legalized in many countries still a person suffering from muscle weakness and pain disease due to a motor neuron impairment does not have a right to die as it is against the human ethics to claim your life without natural death.

2)No, it is not an extension of one's autonomy to clain life unless it is a natural or an accidental death in life.

3)Yes, it is ethically relevant and she should consult a doctor who will prescribe medicines for pain and weakness with check up at regular intervals in life.

4)Patient should have self-determination and motivation in life for survival and desire to live an enthusiastic life without any hurdles and barriers. Medical science has advanced and now treatment for many different dangerous diseases in available in life.

5)She should not be forced by her friend to die unless she is alone and is not supported by her family. If she does not have money to take treatment from a doctor then she can take help from a doctor is undergoing euthanasia or mercy killing at her own discretion in life.

6)The patient should be allowed for mercy killing if she does not have money for treatment and is not supported at all by her family.

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