…but if I were I’d want this doctor treating me. Come to think of it, I’d want him treating me no matter what state of mind I was in.
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In case anybody miscontrues my point, I don’t want to be kept alive when I’m in the condition that Ms. Schiavo is in. My relatives know I want the plug to be pulled. My point is that more doctors should care for the patients with the depth of feeling that Dr. Bradley exhibits. If he treats his comatose patients the way he described then can you imagine how well he treats his non-comatose patients?
I don’t agree with Dr. Bradley (Kill as Few Patients as Possible) on too many things (including the Schiavo case), but I still find most of what he has to say to be thoughtful none-the-less.
I’ve blogged (this being just one example) about the Schiavo thing plenty of times (and have commented on Dr. Bradley’s blog), and each time, I can’t help but go back to my own personal experiences with my grandfather, who ended up in a persistent vegetative state following a series of strokes. In that instance, we kept the feeding tubes in all the way up until “natural” death. We saw all the movements, twitches, reactions, noises, etc. as some form of attempt to communicate. In retrospect, I’ve concluded that this was all wishful thinking, and that there simply was no cognitive intelligent function at work, and that these movements and noises were about as primal and had nothing to do with any kind of self awareness at all.
For a good analysis from a different perspective, check out Health Law Blog and scroll down (sorry, permalink doesn’t work) to the article entitled: The Schiavo case: legal process run amok.
RussLegal Memo-Random