Life support

[enoob57]

Parents of children (plugged in) have found this to be unbelievable sorrows!

[~candice~]

I have pulled a plug. IMHO it can be the best thing to do.

Machines cannot keep you alive, but they can artificially generate a pulse, and heartbeat etc.

And personally, if I am in that position, please PULL THE PLUG and let me go home.

[Mark2005]

Had to make a similar decision with Dad earlier this year. It still haunts me, even though intellectually I believe I did the right thing to not keep him there in a semi-conscious state with no chance of recovery.

[Fez]

I have pulled a plug. IMHO it can be the best thing to do.

Machines cannot keep you alive, but they can artificially generate a pulse, and heartbeat etc.

And personally, if I am in that position, please PULL THE PLUG and let me go home.

That is my wish as well.

I had no idea when I vetured this post that there were people who had to make the decision

I stand with you on your decision, and would do the same thing for one of my family.

Easy to say when you are not in the situation? Of course! But like you I would wrestle with the decision, and would be doing a lot of searching and praying beforehand.

Blessings.

[~candice~]

I have pulled a plug. IMHO it can be the best thing to do.

Machines cannot keep you alive, but they can artificially generate a pulse, and heartbeat etc.

And personally, if I am in that position, please PULL THE PLUG and let me go home.

That is my wish as well.

I had no idea when I vetured this post that there were people who had to make the decision

I stand with you on your decision, and would do the same thing for one of my family.

Easy to say when you are not in the situation? Of course! But like you I would wrestle with the decision, and would be doing a lot of searching and praying beforehand.

Blessings.

It was a faithful decision . If God's promises are real, I have nothing to fear about a believer coming off the machine, and trusting the Lord to be be sufficient to cover their sins and admit them into eternal glory. I contrast that against putting faith in medicine to keep them alive for another... however long... just to face the same fate later on.

[mizzdy]

Having just witnessed this very thing this week and have had like Candice to be part of a decision to 'pull the plug' it is absolutely the best thing one can do. There is no life on a machine, eventually the heart and brain waves cease to exist and that person is no longer there. Its hard, hardest thing one can do but its is the best thing one can do for the person, for oneself and the family.

shalom,

Mizz

[rich08]

This is an emotive subject - I'm sure all of us have lost loved ones: but to have the responsibility thrust upon you to make the decision is (I imagine) inordinately difficult and I feel for those that have had to make it.

Personally I think it boils down to this: is the person simply being kept alive by mechanical means - such that withdrawal would end (earthly) life - with no chance of recovery? If so I would 'pull the plug' (although I would allow family who wanted to to say 'goodbye' before doing so).

I think the decision is much easier if the person concerned is a Christian because we know that they will be raised anew with the risen Lord. It must be a truly heart wrenching decision where this is not the case (I can empathise having lost my non-Christian father last year: he was terminally ill but died before we reached the point where we needed to make such a decision).

[~candice~]

I have pulled a plug. IMHO it can be the best thing to do.

Machines cannot keep you alive, but they can artificially generate a pulse, and heartbeat etc.

And personally, if I am in that position, please PULL THE PLUG and let me go home.

Can they prevent you from going home with a machine? If they can, that means you are still alive, so to pull the plug is to kill you. If you are really brain dead, the body is functioning, but you are gone. Even if you are not gone, you don't know anything at that time, because you are brain dead, so what is 20 years asleep in the scheme of eternity? I can't think of any good reason to pull the plug, except from a financial standpoint. There is no reason to do it.

I just read Mizzdy's post, and she says that "there is no life on a machine, eventually the brain waves cease to exist and that person is no longer there." If that is the case, what difference does it make if the person is left on the machine indefinately? They don't feel anything. Either the soul has already left the body and gone to be with the Lord, or they are in a state of sleep. Either way, they aren't suffering, so what harm is there in leaving them on life support?

Can you justify leaving them on the machine?

For a lot of families, they need the closure. Is it really right to string them along for twenty years? If insurance is an issue, how can they cope with keeping an essentially dead person's body going for 20 years?

I really do think that sometimes, keeping the body going when the life is gone, is a lack of faith.

[Mark2005]

I think our entire family was better off letting Dad go than we would have been letting his languish in a hospital bed indefinitely with no real chance of recovery. He lived a full life he was 85. It was just time. Sad, though.

[Sevenseas]

Just a question, followed by some musing....

If a person is on full life support after a accident or dread disease, and can only "live" on life support, and pulling the plug will result in death......

Is it Ok to pull the plug?

My thought is that the person is for all intent and purpose dead, and is being kept alive by machines alone, and man is keeping him alive.

God has therefore already acted. The person is dead...

If the plug is pulled and the person dies, freed from the machines, man was keeping them alive.

If the plug is pulled and the person miraculously revives God has acted.

Difficult subject. But I still think if it is a machine alone, God has already acted.

I know this is an emotive subject, but when writing a will it could be very important.

Is it OK? yes

If the plug is pulled as you say, and the person revives, then God has acted.

Otherwise, I think people are playing God when a person who is 'dead' is kept artificially breathing and heart beating.

I sure would not want that done to me.