by Volecia Plafcan

Created on: March 19, 2010

Signing a Do Not Resuscitate order has nothing to do with suicide period.  If those are the wishes of the family and the patient, then it should be signed.

Surely, it has been discussed thoroughly before it is signed.

If a patient is old and very sickly, it could be that they wouldn't want to live in that condition any longer should this bring about signing this order.  To be sent home with a family or back to a nursing home, only to return to the hospital in a few days and pass away would put the patient in more stress, not to mention the family.

Of course, it would lenghthen the patient's life but, in a condition such as that, to me, it would just be abuse.

In 1975, Karen Ann Quinlan, a young adopted girl, attended a party.  She drank and did drugs while there.  When she returned home, she collapsed and was rushed to a hospital.  She ultimately went into a coma and after a few months of no improvement, her parents wanted her removed her from life support.  The doctors at the hospital refused.  Legal battles ensued and the parents won.

But, Karen continued to live without the support and remained in a coma for almost ten years.  To me, this was no way of life, but, it did illustrate that a patient can live on.  I would have agreed with the parents, in this case. 

Karen's was a major case in the right to die controversy in the U. S. 

She died of pneumonia in 1985.

Don't you know these parents wanted their daughter to improve?  In that they waited for several months to take her off life support, told me they did.  So, how could anyone say signing a DNR be the same as passive suicide?

My aunt lived on after being disconnected from life support.  After a couple of weeks, she died but, I say there was a reason for both these ladies living on.

That reason, to me, is that there is only no mortal being who can tell when another person will die.  Only God.  And it won't matter what you or anybody else signs.

When I'm older and lying in the hospital, I certainly don't want to be resuscitated.  In the first place, what good would I be just lying there?  I don't want anyone having to worry about my needs, etc.  That is not living.

Children?  Yes, indeed.  If there there is a child, by all means, resuscitate.

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