Poor little boy. And his poor parents, they look so young. I don't know what to actually believe about the whole controversy. I live in a sort of pro-life bubble with occasional interference from outside opinions. I am pro-life so I think we are all, by virtue of being human, entitled to die a natural death. That doesn't include being dehydrated or starved to death. I don't see how that is 'dying with dignity.' When I hear people say that to excuse this sort of thing, it always reminds of that line from Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
And I don't understand at all, why parents who can use their own resources, or resources being given to them, don't have the freedom to take their own flesh and blood to get a second opinion on end of life matters. I don't understand why going to Italy is somehow not dying with dignity. They could get there and the doctors there could say, you know, the Brits were right. But then the parents would have the peace of mind to know they tried. Or the Italians could say, you know let's try to do things this way and they could have had their child longer. Maybe he'd always be in a semi-conscious state, but he'd be with them and they would take him as he is.
On the other hand I heard that 'Alfie's Army' was just horrendous to the hospital and caused lots of conflict. They went way overboard in their zeal. Apparently, they stormed the hospital threatening to pull the fire alarms and one mother whose child was in surgery begged them not to. Alfie's Army had failed to take into consideration that other people were being treated at the hospital. That's what happens when you take someone and make them an ideological symbol. You forget others exist too.
There's lots of people using this case as a way to bash socialized medicine. I agree that this aspect of government run health care scares me. I used to say with Obamacare that I'd probably be for it if the people pushing it weren't so abortion/euthanasia-minded. They scared me too. It was scary the aggressive way they pushed it through as well.
But the truth is, it always comes down to money. And care is determined by how much money. In our system the market (mostly) decides. In theirs, the state decides. Both approaches have grave weaknesses. But in their system they have fewer abortions, and far fewer infant and maternal deaths. And frankly many of those people crying for Alfie would cut Medicaid for him if he was over here and a little bit older.
Poor Alfie. May he rest in peace. God bless his parents. I hope they can recover from this as stronger, better people. They'll always have a hole in their heart for their little boy.
It was such a tragic situation, but it does seem to have been badly reported. Although it is long it is worth reading the full court judgement from February. No judge ever makes a decision of this kind lightly, especially when it involves going against the parents' wishes. Money absolutely is not a factor - in fact it would, I think, be illegal for the judge to be swayed by financial considerations. You can find the judgement here: https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/alder-hey-v-evans.pdf. The judge considered the Catholic perspective and included in his judgement an extract from a pastoral letter on end of life issues written by Pope Francis last November. He believed his decision was consistent with the Pope's teaching.
ReplyDeleteI do think the issue for Americans is not being able to take your own child out of the hospital and get a second opinion. That is the part that seems totalitarian to us.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately he wasn’t well enough to be moved safely. They had a number of further opinions from both British and international doctors. I am not sure if you are aware that in our NHS system we are always entitled to a second opinion if necessary. No judge would consider making a judgement in a case of this sort without additional independent medical evidence. But yes, I understand why it is an issue for Americans and some (but less) British people. However, British law does not give parents absolute rights over their children - this is why parents can also be forced to accept life saving treatment for their children if necessary. It works both ways.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess I don't understand that either. But if moving him was going to lead to death, so is dehydrating and withholding food. I guess in this case I just don't think the state should decide. I can see interfering to save a child's life, if the parents are being reckless but not in situations like this.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I read they withdrew ventilation but then following a palliative care protocol which included hydration. The concern about moving him was that it could have caused him pain without any possibility of changing the outcome, and also that it could have led to him dying in transit without his parents with him. I suppose the question here is at what point should there be intervention if a parent’s actions are likely to cause pain and distress to a child. In all honesty I don’t feel qualified to give an opinion about the rights and wrongs of judicial intervention. I can see arguments both ways. My feeling is that cases like this happen because we have become afraid of natural death to the point where it feels wrong to allow death to take its course without excessive medical intervention - I think this was the point Pope Francis was making in the letter quoted by the judge. Not sure if I am managing to say quite what I mean!
ReplyDeleteI think you are saying things very well. I know what you mean about people fearing natural death. I guess the reports that I was reading were of Pope Francis saying to bring Alfie to Italy. Which is why the air ambulance was waiting nearby, etc. Who can know the real facts, though. I feel all news has an agenda nowadays. And really this is such a hard choice with no real right answer. Still I don't think one is allowed to withdraw water and food from a dying person, ethically. You can wait for the natural death but not hasten it. That does get tricky though. When my grandmother was dying, we held off on giving her morphine because they said it would hasten her death, but at the very end she was in such agony we did give it to her and she passed away 24 hours later. She had congestive heart failure and she was going to go at any time. There just is no right answer sometimes. I still am glad that we got to choose as a family instead of a doctor or a court.
DeleteYes, I try to avoid relying on news reports so have done my best to stick to the court judgements as the only primary source documents readily available, though I recognise that these are only the judge’s summing up of the evidence. I don’t think entire court transcripts are online, and even if there were I would never have time to read them. I would emphasise that cases like this are very, very rare, which is why they become “news” - in almost all cases the family does ultimately make the decisions. I had to decide what to do when my elderly mother, who had a stomach virus, took a very obvious turn for the worse. I was pretty sure she was dying and decided not to call an ambulance as I knew she would not have wanted to die in hospital. I did call out her GP to get confirmation that she was dying and to check there wasn’t anything we should be doing for her that I wasn’t aware of. He said he could arrange for her to go to hospital and receive intensive antibiotics, but felt that at best they might give her a few more days, and was very supportive when I said we wanted to let her die naturally at home. Instead he arranged for a nurse to visit to help with palliative care, which turned out not to be needed. She actually died within two hours, at home in her own bed, with her cat lying on the bed and my brother and myself with her. If I had asked for her to go to hospital she would almost certainly have died in the ambulance, and if she was sufficiently conscious to know what was going on would have died in distress. As things turned out I have no doubt I made the right decision - but would I have felt the same if she had lived longer? I hope I would, but will never know. Like you I am glad it was our decision to make.
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