LogFAQs > #985851625

The way I see it, if there's ever a question about the validity of a DNR or similar order, it's better to err on the side of saving their life. If somebody ends up living when they would have preferred to die, they can always end their own life as needed (and I would expect such a case to qualify easily for MAID, if needed). If somebody ends up dying when they would have preferred to live, they're out of luck. Given a choice between creating a problem that can be fixed and creating a problem that can't, the former just makes more sense to me.

Now, that comes with the caveat that they have to remain competent enough to express their disappointment after their life has been saved. If the live, but end up vegetative, they can't really kill themselves anymore, so this logic falls apart. In that regard, it's a bit of a gamble, because situations where you can't guarantee their level of competency after resuscitation are pretty common. There's also a fair chance that somebody who wants to die for religious reasons (like a Jehovah's Witness turning down a blood transfusion) would also have religious objections to suicide, but my reasoning there is that if your god would have wanted you to die and you only lived because somebody else interfered, it would make sense to guess that killing yourself to correct that interference would be in line with your god's will (as opposed to the usual religious objection to suicide being because it denies god's wish for you to live).

SinisterSlay posted...

It's actually pretty genius that it worked at all.

Not really. Provided you've got blood circulation, gas exchange, nutrient absorption, and the requisite reproductive bits are intact (which does include the endocrine side of things, so it's a bit more than just "have uterus"), a fetus can grow. Brain death doesn't prevent any of that, so all you really need is basic life support and a braindead person can carry a pregnancy to term.

Heck, if you really wanted to get dystopian about it, you could pretty easily keep braindead women around specifically for the sake of farming babies without having to deal with the challenges of growing them artificially. That would, however, be horrific, and this acknowledgement should not be considered in any way an endorsement of raping braindead women to turn them into baby factories.

Vicaris posted...

and on the other hand Canada standing as one of the few winners, or lesser losers, of global warming.

Though you might want to invest in some N95 masks if you like going outside, given how often a significant chunk of the country is on fire these days.