EVEN at the bleakest moments when one is on life support, when hope for their survival is faint, family and friends should not have the authority to decide whether or not to pull the plug.

Let’s say (God forbid) a relative is driving home on a late Saturday night or early Sunday morning from a bar; they have had quite a few drinks and are not in a position to control the wheel, their vision is ‘impaired’ but as most say, the car knows the way home.

This one time, the car forgets its way home, it rolls a few times and by the time your relative is pulled out, he/she is unconscious and looks dead at first sight. At the hospital, in a coma, the patient is put in the intensive care unit and the doctor says that if you are going to sit by them waiting for them to come around, you will be around the hospital corridors for a while. A long while. We are talking months that could end in years.

You imagine your affection for them will keep you around for as long as it takes.  Two years pass, and you have already become used to the hospital corridors, you are familiar with medical terms and have thought about your relative’ death a couple of times but not told anyone about it.

The bill is piling fast and most people have come to terms with the fact that he may not come around. A gathering is called with the agenda being the way forward for the patient.  

Such a decision could easily be based on factors and aspects that have little to do with medical progress; the decision could be influenced by financial factors or past relations with the patient. The decision could easily be influenced by emotional factors.

We all agree that when one is in a coma, there is uncertainty if they will come around and incurring medical expenses when you are not sure it will have an impact could cause one to think hard about their decision. Religious perspectives aside, none of us should have the authority to decide when one should die, not even if you are footing the bill. If we only looked at how costly it was to keep someone on life support, we would be drawing it down to people buying life and their existence. Few of us would be in the position to live. The point of medicine and science is to try getting through situations that faith can’t get us.

If not for the belief that none of us should have their existence dependent on someone else’s decision, how about for a piece of mind? How would it feel getting on with life wondering if they would have come around had you not pulled the plug?