A person who can only be sustained through external ventilation and feeding is being artificially supported,that we know.......even so it is not murdering someone to let them die naturally when their brain is no longer functioning.
I have to agree. Temporary life support for someone that has the likelihood of getting better from an accident or illness is valid medical care. Life support that is only forestalling death because family members cannot bear to say goodbye is cruelty of the highest order.
It's not morally offensive --- not murder--- to turn off the ventilator when it can no longer prevent an inevitable death and it is more burdensome than therapeutic.
This is not so with nutrition/hydration. N/h are always "ordinary" care even when administered by tube. A tube makes no difference. It's just as low-tech as a sippy cup or a drinking straw. It's not really burdensome, and its purpose is not a futile intervention, it's merely sustaining life by preventing starvation/dehydration.
The only exception would be where the food simply cannot be assimilated anymore, and/or there are complications at the tube site (such as infection.)
(2) The second major issue here is the parents' right to seek better care for their child. If the parents want him discharged so he can be admitted to Gesu Bambino in Rome, the NHS needs to support their right to do so. Alfie's got a mother and father, he's THEIR child: he belongs to himself, his parents, and God ----not to the NHS.
This situation makes me sick.
Once again rendering to "Caesar" that which belongs to God. And the Catholic Bishops of Britain are going along with it. Shame. Shame and damnation.
I think the issue is who decides? That is a lot of power. I have a problem with who decides, especially if they block possible diagnosis/treatment by other medical people.
I personally knew of a little girl in a coma from brain injury and her parents were told it was time to let her go. The parents instead had her transferred to a neurological institute in another state and she ended up recovering.
I have a real problem when the people with the power refuse to let patients be taken elsewhere for other possible treatment.
If I were told a loved one was brain dead and needed to be removed from life support, I would sure want to be free to take that person for another evaluation, other possible treatment. I am very much against them legally keeping family from seeking other answers.