EIKEN writing

第29話 Should life-prolonging treatment be recommended?

Pros and cons of life-prolonging treatment has been discussed for several decades throughout the world. It is not easy to solve the problem. But I totally agree that life-prolonging treatment should be demolished with three reasons as follows.

Firstly, life-prolonging treatment makes patients with no effective treatment got suffered from tremendous torture which some patients who can not breath by themselves recieve an artifitial respirator and a intravenous drip while laying in a bed which prevents them from moving free.

Secondly, the patient families have to suffer from pain mentally and financially. The patient's families have to see the patient's gradual deteriorating condition. It is mentally suffering for them and the life-prolonging treatment is long-term, so the families have to pay for its huge amount of medical care.

Finally, it is problematic in terms of moral. Since patients facing no cure will lose control over making decision how they can be treated, it means that their family should make the decision which may not reflect on the desire of the patients.

In conclusion, In consideration of ethics that doctor should keep on going treatment as long as patient is alive, it is understandable that life-prolonging treatment should be continued. but when considering the happiness of the patient and the family, life-prolonging treatment should be studied more carefully.