Cancer and Euthanasia
This is a story that hit close to home when I read it and thought about all those patients that are kept alive for as long as possible by artificial means and costs.
What quality of life does the patient have?
Who makes the monies by keeping the patient alive?
Is it not the choice of the patient or the family when there is no more hope for recovery to be able to request that they are put out of their misery?
Her Euthanasia Pleas Ignored, Slum Girl Loses Battle to Cancer: “Blood cancer patient Alka Tiwari, who had grabbed headlines after appealing to a court in Kanpur to either ask the government to bear her medical expenses or allow euthanasia, has died. 21-year-old Alka, who had been suffering from aplastic anaemia blood cancer since 2002, died at the Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore on Monday, her brother Brijesh Tiwari said today. Moved by the slum dwellers plight, several local residents, politicians and social organisations had come forward to provide financial assistance to her. ‘She had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant on December 15 and was expected to be discharged from the hospital in the last week of January,’ Brijesh said. ‘She was recuperating well, but around a week ago, water entered her respiratory system and there was an infection in her brain. Doctors admitted Alka in the ICU and best possible efforts were made to save her life,’ he said.”……….