Let’s Play…HOW BAD CAN IT GET?!?!

In these 3 awful scenarios, you are the doctor and can only choose 2 patients that will have their request to be euthanized granted. Things to consider: how will other people think of you and regard your practice?

Can you handle a guilty conscience? Are the lives of any of these patients SO BAD that they have to die?

Patient #1: Luke Ziplock• About Luke:• 56 years old and is married to Gladice Ziplock with

twin sons, Edgar and Allan• He has been in a coma for 6 years after going into

cardiac arrest• He has not shown improvement over these years

and as the boys are getting ready to head off to college, Gladice wonders if it is time to emotionally and financially cut off this burden

• PLUS-To cope with the emotional strain of his father being in a coma for most of his life, Edgar starting drinking at a young age and developed a serious condition, Cirrhosis of the Liver, which he will not survive unless he gets a liver transplant, and of course Luke is a match

• Should Gladice allow her husband to die to save her son?

Patient #2: Rosemary Underwood• She is 84 years old• Suffers from osteoarthritis (degenerative joint

disease) as a result of trauma to the joint and old age, which causes severe joint pain whenever she moves

• Suffers from Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) which causes severe abdominal pain when she eats and often results in violent vomiting

• Suffers from Herpes zoster (aka shingles), a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters. *Rosemary first asked her doctor to euthanize her during the initial outbreak 4 years ago

• Suffers from Cluster headaches, also called “suicide headaches”: a neurological disease that involves an immense degree of pain in the head that occur periodically

• She has no family to speak of, and due to her immense amount of daily and nightly pain, she begs her doctors to show her some mercy, “I wish I could tell you that I remember a time before the pain started, before I hated living, but I don’t,” Rosemary also suffers from acute memory loss.

Patient #3: Cocoa Brownstein• 13 (in human years)• BELOVED Brownstein family pet, and the only

family member who “Is always there for me” says Owen, the Brownstein’s 7 year old son who has Down syndrome, “I couldn’t live without my Cocoa”

• Cocoa has diabetes and thus requires shots 3 times a day, which is particularly painful for him because of an autoimmune disorder that causes him to have ulceration and crusting of the skin, as well as the formation of fluid-filled sacs, cysts, and pus filled lesions covering most of his body

• Cocoa also has pancreatic cancer and even after several expensive treatments, he only requires more and more medicine to stay alive, only to lay around the house in pain

• The Brownstein parents don’t want to put him down, he protects Owen and he comforts them when they worry about Owen’s health and development