Mad Kally

If you kill yourself in private where no one is around who wants to help you.

You'd do better to take a giant overdose of insulin resulting in insulin shock and death.

winstonjen

Well, some people see help differently from others. To some, life support is help, to others it isn't.

I agree that a giant overdose of insulin would be more effective (as morbid as it sounds), but I was making the point that I do not really see the difference between pulling life support and giving a lethal injection.

alek0

I don't think that age for entering a PhD program and age for being judged as capable of making competent medical decisions for yourself are comparable.

There are a number of factors why I would be reluctant to admit older PhD students:
1) If they have been spending their time in academic environment and it took them so long to get their previous degree, they are likely not competent enough. If they have been working in the industry and now want to get a PhD during economic downturn they are not motivated enough to do research and will likely produce lousy results.
2) They have likely forgotten most of things they have learnt for their previous degree. This is based on years of experience of teaching grad courses for MSc Eng.
3) They may have family obligations and be less willing to work hard. All the topics I offer are experimental and require spending lots of time in the lab.
4) Many males, especially in Asia, have problems with having a younger woman as their supervisor.

You don't have to be certain age to know what you want in life. However, for a PhD program, if you haven't considered doing research right after you got your previous degree, than likely research work is not for you. I would also like to add that if I was in social science, arts, or humanities I would likely have entirely different criteria for student admission than I do for my field.

Sabine Grant

Good morning Rick, Kally and everyone!

Rick : I sincerely hope that you are right. My heart still goes out to her parents. I fear that court decision might open up a gate for relatives of mentaly incapacitated patients to lobby for life support measures withdrawal. And I hope I am wrong.

Kally : thanks for the encouragement!

Winstonjen : Living Wills can specificaly define that the patient wishes to not have any life support measures. IMO if all patients could establish a Living Will at the time of the diagnosis of a terminal illness, it would reduce the impression that the person is " being killed".

My uneasiness about DNR arders posted in most of my senior patients is certainly a personal problem on my part. I can hardly imagine myself watching one of them going in cardiac arrest and having to let go....

Dr Rick

There are profound differences between active intervention and passive complicity, both morally and practically. Without this distinction, I would be compelled to resuscitate every person that had clearly stated that they did not want to be resuscitated. It is legal and moral to withhold interventions; but it is not legal to kill someone by injecting a lethal conconction or firing a round into someone's head.

Denying or "pulling" life support is not the ethical or legal equivalent of murder or euthanasia.

There is a great difference between letting someone die and killing someone.

Rick

Sabine Grant

I agree....killing someone implies that the person or someone does not consent to dying. It also implies that they would physicaly do all they can to stay alive. Survival is then their primary goal.

When someone requests to be taken off life support, they wish to not survive. They are already in a surviving mode thru life support measures. They should be allowed to die as they wish to.
The goal is to die not to survive.

winstonjen

I disagree. Like I said, the example of a person with diabetes choosing not to take insulin.

Is it really a natural death?

Letting someone die can take a very long time, and if they need a respirator to live, well, it's extremely painful. Surely putting them out of their misery with morphine is more desirable, and humane.

Also, what about the dilemma of double effect - when the ONLY way to relive the patient's suffering is to kill them?

Mad Kally

Do you have any examples of this intractable pain? I just don't see these things happening.

I've had a ventilator breathing for me one time after an accident. It was scary when I woke up, but the vent itself was not painful. Just the rest of my body. I'm glad no one put me to death.

Mad Kally

Discrimination based on age is called ageism here. It's illegal when it comes to jobs, housing, buy a new car and most everything else. People used to be forced to retire when they reached age 65. Now that is against the law. It's also illegal to ask a person their age or marital status on employment applications.

alek0

PhD studies are not employment. It is not a matter of age per se, it is a matter of competence and motivation. Typically there are more candidates than there are places, and those who are fresh graduates who would like to continue for a higher degree typically have a lot better qualifications than those who are having second thoughts about choice they made long ago when they graduated. If there was an excellent older candidate, I would admit him/her, but I have yet to see that.