Amy gave birth to a baby boy after only 24 weeks gestation. The premature child weighed only 1 1/4 lbs and was only 13 inches. Statistically, the child has between a 5% and a 20% chance of survival and over a 50% chance of growing up with intellegence disabilities, cerebral palsy, blindness, and deafness. Should money be continually spent on medical treatment or should the parents and/ or doctor be given the rigt to take away the life support? What is euthanasia? Is it just a murder, or is it a helpful procedure to end people’s suffering?
It is the “act of helping a person end his or her life in a painless fashion to relieve unbearable suffering”. It is the taking of a human life by another person to prevent further pain and misery. There are four types of euthanasia: Active, Passive, Voluntary and Involuntary. Active Euthanasia is when a second party, whether is be a doctor or someone else, discretely introduces a lethal amount of medication into the sick or dying person. Passive Euthanasia involves the removal of medical treatment from the suffering individual.
Voluntary Euthanasia is when the patient asks his or her doctor to assist in the procedures to ensure the end of the patient’s life. Involuntary Euthanasia is present in Amy’s case, along with Passive Euthanasia. It is when the individual who is suffering is either in a coma, incompitent, or a premature child that cannot speak for itself, and instead of the patient making the decision, the family and/ or doctor does. Prematurity is when a child is born within less than 36 weeks gestation.
The child is usually born with low birth weight, some type of physical deformity and / or any kind of mental problems that can all lead to a future of being outcatsed. Around half the babies born at 24 weeks are at risk of growing up with severe disabilities. Minor disabilities dont usually occur until further in the child’s life, approximately once the child begins attending school. Reading and learning problems may occur. Obviously, the earlier the child is born the less chance of survival and health there is.
This is because the babies have not yet fully developed the lungs, causing sudden collapses with every breath the child takes. “Matters involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may take in a lifetime… are central to the liberty protected by the 14th amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of the universe and the mystery of human life. ” Mentioned in the Roe v. Wade case on abortion, this was said to prove that a woman should be the one to decide her child’s future.
It is her choice whether she wants to take the chance of her child growing up with a future full of segregation and limitations while spending thousands, if not millions, of dollars on keeping the child alive and as healthy as possible. Many families just don’t have the financial status to support such treatments. In 1982, the Baby Doe legislation made it a crime for doctors to do less than the maximum to keep even the least tenable infants alive. This caused many children to experience years and years of pain and misery.
By 1984, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act had ordained that aggressive treatment of premature infants must be given regardless of the prospects of futur disabilities. This seems as though the act the exact opposite of what its should be doing. The act is meant to prevent child suffering and abuse, yet if the prematurity of the infants gives the child very little to no hope at all in being healthy and “normal”, then the children will grow up being taunted, pushed around, and treated much, much differently than any of the “normal” children surrounding.
Physical and verbal abuse from the surrounding people is a serious abuse that can pscyhologically mix up the child. Even though the government is fighting for the rights of the infants allowing them to survive solely for a future of torture for both the family and the child. Quality of life is an important factor and value that is debated about throughout all of the arguments concerning euthanasia. A decision was finally made that in some circumstance when a fetus is terribly deformed, or is likely to have extremely serious diseases, euthanasia may show more respect to the human life than actual childbirth.
Passive Euthanasia, which is accepted in sixteen states, has one reason for its legality. The reasoning is that it allows strong believers in nature and God to let things go the way they were intended on going, instead of continuing the performance of technological and scientific discoveries in order to just delay the day of death. Some Christian Fundamentalists dont permit any form of clinical intervention. Passive Euthanasia has the idea basically that with a lethal injection the patient is actually being murdered, and with lack of medical support, the patient is leaving himself up to nature’s rules.
When one stays on life support, the only thing that it is doing is delaying the death day, but there is usually no change in the state of the underlying medical condition of the patient. There are four criteria that the government can use to override one’s decision for euthanasia: the preservation of an important life to the people (not just family), the protection of an innocent third party(s), prevention of suicide, and maintenance of ethical integrity of the medical profession.
This was establish during the Satz v. Perlmutter case on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Many people, on the other hand, believe in Faith Healing, which is bases upon the belief in divine intervention into the natural course of disease. The state has the rights and takes on the responsibility to protect the rights og the fetus in the situation of criminal acts such as euthanasia. Once the premature baby is born, he/she is rushed to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where the child is checked for any abnormalities, especially any kind of breathing, heart rate, anad blood pressure difficulties.
A tube, called the CPAP ( continuous positive airway pressure), is inserted into the baby’s windpipe, or a pressurized hood is fitted over the infants head, so that a continuous supply of low pressure air is directed to the sacs of the immature lungs. The preemie is then placed into an incubator where lights called bilibrium shine onto the baby in order to detoxify the jaundice ( the yellowing of the baby’s skin when the livers are not yet mature). Skin sensors then monitor oxygen and other blood gases throughout the infant’s body.
There is a constant blood analysis to make sure the measurements of blood sugar, acidity and gases are as they should be and not abnormal. An electronic thermometer is used to measure the preemies body temperature to make sure that it stays consistant. A Nasogastric Feeding Tube is inserted into the nose through which breast milk or formula is fed to the child because the infant is too weak to suck on a nipple. A tiny cord is also inserted into the umbilical cord to deliver intravenous fluids at a consistant rate to the baby’s bloodstream.
As postnatal technology and care improve, babies can survive being born at earlier gestational ages. Prematurity, though, can also lead to associated health problems such as the underdevelopment of lungs, lack of breathing abilities, immature nervous system causing seizures and episodes of bleeding from the brain, brain damage, underdeveloped immune system and kidneys causing blood poisoning. Spina bifida is when the child may have trouble with muscular control of the leg, foot and knee functions, along with bladder and bowel control.
Mental retardation and learning disabilities are other possible outcomes. Complications that premature children may develop are all more or less respiratory diseases. Respiratory Distress syndrome is when a preemie younger than 36 weeks is born and the lungs are immature. The elastic quality that expands and contrasts the air sacs is not yet developed and causes serious breathing abnormalities. Lung failure is a big cause of premature baby death. Surfactant is a substance that provides surface tension in the air sacs of the lungs.
Naturally it doesnt develop until nearly the 35th week into pregnancy. Without surfactant the lung air sacs collapse and stick together with every breath causing respiratory distress. A ventilator is used to manually contract and expand the lungs. Unfortunately, this can also cause damaged lungs and the infant may come to develop some chronic lung disease. Bronchopulomonary dysplacia is when babies require breathing assistance a month after birth. Apnea and Bradycardia is when the breathing intervals last between 10 and 15 seconds.
Then there are the non respiratory related dieases such as Inercranial Hemorrage, where there is bleeding within the brain of the child. Necrotizing Entericilotis is when the intestines develop a poor blood flow where in severe cases surgery must be performed. Retinopathy of prematurity is the disease that causes vision impairment (often complete blindness) in premature babies. Many people believe euthanasia in this case is wrong. It is believed to violate the principle that life is given by God. Because life was given by God, it is God’s decision to give life and to take it away.
Shedding Innocent Blood” is considered murder in the Bible. It is believed that not all suffering is bad, and even though most of the time we continually ask God why we suffer, some good can come from it. The act of euthanasia is a result of the cheapening of human life. People seem to lose respect for human life. In order to stop such murders, some people believe that the value of life should be taught. If euthanasia was to be legal, condemned killers would have more rights to have their lives protected. Also, an infant is protected by several laws that call for manditory care.
This care provides for care that could potentially save the infants life, and whatever chances that an infant has under this care is should not be ignored, because not giving an infant a chance is murder. The arguement for euthanasia involves the quality of life. Medically, the infants chances may be very slim. Also, because the premature infant was not given the chance to develop in the protection of its mothers womb, chances are high for a veriaty of medical conditions. These condisitons severaly decrease the quality of life of the child and provide for a life of suffering and hardship.
The arguement for euthanasia involves using several cases where the existence of an indevidual is defined by the indevidual to end suffering and with support of the practice of euthanasia on severely deform children already in palce. However, the parents would make the decision for the infant. All of the medical treatment that the child would receive with the infants slim chances of survival, and with high chances of medical conditions, would cost money that could be going to treat other patients in terms of insurance, or for the benefit of the family.