JP, coming in on either one of the those days sounds good to me. I have not really gotten a good sense of how much time I can take off for work, since we do have a study going on and everything. If you were to stay till the 30th, then I could take off the 24th and 27th, or something like that. How much are flights running for xmas right now?
I just want to quickly comment on XO's post on euthanasia. Here is the quote:"I think that consenting adults (of sound mind, etc.) should be able to ask for it." Problem with that is the definition of sound mind. Maybe we could apply the same principles of the sound mind definition in adults who want to end their own lives, to parents who make decisions regarding their ill baby's life. You would have to bring in MDs and psychologists trained in whatever disease the person has (if the state of the person's psyche is not readily obvious), so that they can look at actual psychological symptoms of dementia, psychopathology, and do not confuse these manifestations with vegetative symptoms (manifestations associated with a disease that do not necessarily indicate psychopathology, like excessive crying, weird mood swings, etc). "Regarding children/babies, the issue gets more complex - you have issues like: diseases that seem incurable now, but might be cured in the next 5 to 10 years. Would you euthanize the babies, even though a cure for their disease is on the horizon?" Let's think practically here. The idea of "on the horizon" is kind of misleading, I think, because if the horizon is 10 years away, should we sustain these babies' lives, even if they are in a coma, without any brain activity? Or if they have a severe CNS illness that requires vast amounts of resources and makes them severly uncomfortable (babies have a higher sensitivity for pain)? What if this baby were basically a vegetable, and will never regain consciousness? Again the quality of life question. What if there is no way the parents could afford huge medical treatment for their baby for 5 to 10 years? Should the tax payers take on the burden of a baby who is being kept alive on a whim? "One suggestion I've read that if it were so horrible to let a baby live (that you would consider euthanasia), why not let it live long enough to make the decision on its own, instead of letting someone else make the decision?" The legal age to begin making a choice for yourself is 12. What I said above displays how waiting 12 years for a child to grow up is really unreasonable. "I think this kind of decision needs to be made by a society as a whole." yes and no. There should be more talk and consensus in society as a whole, and attitudes need to be developed towards death and dying. Ultimately, and forgive me for repeating myself, if severe disability is present, and if the parents are able to make the decision, they should be responsible.
Nuff said. gotta work now.
Love
H

- posted by H @ 12/08/2004 09:04:00 AM