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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (69601)	7/29/2009 2:51:28 PM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 224744

Yes, they crack me up big time!

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (69601)	7/29/2009 4:09:56 PM
From: SmoothSail	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224744

The Smug Alert episode was one of their best. Not to change the subject, but... there's another side to this end of life discussion that I've seen being discussed here and elsewhere. A few years back while talking to my dad, the subject of the next door neighbor (age 85), who had just passed away, came up. He told me her caretaker called the paramedics when she was acting funny - she'd had a stroke. At the hospital, they hooked her up to everything including intubating her. She was in a coma with little hope of recovery. Her daughter demanded that they take her off all the life support and it took almost 5 days to make that happen. My dad said he was appalled at what the hospital did and told me that if he were ever in a situation where he had no quality of life, that he didn't want extraordinary measures taken - and had a DNR written up. What I learned from that was you have to be careful when you call the paramedics. They have an obligation to save the life and do everything possible to do that. Case in point: my mom had a stroke and her caretaker didn't want to wait for the paramedics so he picked her up, put her in his car and drove her to the hospital. And thanks heavens he did that. She was in a coma and the hospital needed my consent to hook her up - intubate her and also put a feeding tube in. I called her priest to ask his opinion and he said, "You should take the high road. Don't add to her misery, even though she's in a coma, no one knows how deep or if she can feel pain. The feeding tube hurts and quite often gets gangrene. The tube down the throat hurts and is uncomfortable. She could be like that for months. Once the hospital hooks her up, if you want to stop it, you will be the one that has to cut the tubes - the nurses won't do it." I think people should have a choice, have an option, when they get to the stage that their quality of life is gone and there's no hope of recovery. I just don't want the government dictating how and when that's going to happen. Anything "mandatory" from the government that concerns one's life is just unacceptable.