Thursday, August 30, 2012

Quality of Life is More than Just Interacting

We might never solve this -- until we master the art of reading minds.

Do we let the living dead live? No, I'm not talking about those who crawl out of the graves on Halloween. I'm talking about the brain dead, those in the vegetative state, and those in long-term comas.

Do we let them live, or as it is expressed so often, do we "allow" them to die? (As if we are doing them a favor by sending them to their deaths)

Living wills partially answer the question. If a person sets it in their will that they want to be taken off life support when they can no longer interact with us, should be always honor that wish?

I mean, always, 'cause sure as death might seem ideal way at one point, once it gets right up and in our face, we might be saying, "Hey, hold off, here. I'm having some real second thoughts."

They say "Give me death" at one point, but "Give me liberty" later.

They say, "Hey, this isn't all so bad, after all. I can't communicate with anyone, and my thought process is greatly diminished, but still, I enjoy life as it is and have decided I do want to stick around."

Only thing is, their ticket has already been punched -- and they are the ones who punched it, if they signed that living will.

Somewhere in mankind's time frame, we started using the term, "quality of life." We decided quality of life is not only important, but if a person is in a vegetative state, they lack quality of life and most likely would be glad to be let go, so yank those respirators, feeding tubes, and lifelines.

But in actuality, living in a coma might not be all so bad. Living in a vegetative state (which is defined as a state of partial mental arousal, but not true awareness -- a state of severe mental injury) might not be so awfully terrible.

Kind of like sleeping ain't all so bad. There've been times in my life when I've thought nothing could be better than to just sleep and sleep and sleep, dreaming a little here and there and just chillin' in a make-believe world.

Wonderful, even.

So, since it is that we can't read minds -- never did quite get that one down --  just how do we know whether these people are having  "quality" lives? Quality of life shouldn't be judged by whether others can interact with us, but by whether we, ourselves, are enjoying dreaming, or listening in on a world around us when everyone thinks we aren't.
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