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Euthanasia4

Euthanasia4 Karen Quinland became one of the most famous persons in the field of Bioethics because of the controversies over her right to die. Due to a drug overdose, she went into a coma for an extended period of time. Because of many people’s misconceptions about comatose conditions, controversies about her case arose as the public tried to rationalize the decision of allowing her to die. Because of popular culture, the average person believes that a patient in a comatose condition, or a persistent vegetative state (PVS) to be in a state of peaceful slumber. However, persons in such a condition suffer both mentally and physically. The romantic aura to the idea of a person in coma permeates popular culture because of the movies and stories that we hear every day. Movies such as Coma staring Michael Douglas and While You Were Sleeping staring Sandra Bullock falsely portray the state of coma as peaceful and angelic, and true to most popular Hollywood endings, the person in the coma always wakes up at the end and lives “happily ever after”. Watching these movies, one would certainly see a parallel between them and the stories that are told to young children everyday. Even from childhood, fairy tales influence and mislead people by presenting a false impression of serenity to a, in reality, very serous physiological and psychological problem. For example, Snow White who ate a poisoned apple (possible drug overdose) went in to a coma, and was miraculously awakened by a prince. In sleeping beauty, the princess was again in a coma after injuring her self with a spinning machine (possible head trauma), but a young man again awakened her. Both stories portrayed the victims as beautiful even after weeks and years of unconsciousness, which in reality would be highly unlikely. What makes these stories even more unbelievable is that both victims were awakened to the kiss of a handsome young man. These idealized versions of comas cannot be true, because such a condition is generally caused by severe brain damage as a result of a stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, or drug overdose. These conditions would cause a lack of oxygenated blood supply to the brain, killing portions of the brain. Patients will then be likely to lose much brain activity, the ability to full expand their lungs (this inability may cause infections in the lungs, and/or the ability to ingest solid food. Therefore, the patients must be linked to respirators and/or feeding tubes. The respirator may causes choking thus the body jerks about giving the perception of serious pain. The artificial nutrition will cause bloating of the face, giving a Porky Pig like complexion. Also, the brain damage may result in tensing of the muscles as with stroke victims, giving the body a rigid and contorted form. However, even though the patients have lost brain function, some may still have the ability to move their eyes, but without the brain to interpret the images. This is probably the most disconcerting aspect for the family to witness, to see the eyes move but to know that the patient is brain dead. This is very different from the idealized physical beauty of both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Just as the difference of appearance is drastically different between stories and reality, so is the difference of the role of the handsome prince and reality. In fact, statistically, the patients face an up hill battle that a kiss from a prince can do nothing to help. Most patients who are in such a condition are essentially brain dead, with only an insignificant amount of brain activity. All patients who have been in the state for over 12 months have only a 1 in 62 chance of recovering, and no one have ever awakened after 30 months of being comatose. These are grim details and statistics that should change people’s misguided concepts of comas. Patients are not in a peaceful slumber; their bodies are suffering physically and mentally. The public should respect the condition and understand it to avoid a rude awakening if someone close to them would be unfortunately enough to become comatose patient. Bibliography:

Word Count: 689