Word: prolonged
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Exercising this responsibility would be easier if the courts were not involved, says Kimball. "A physician's task is to aid the patient, not to make the patient suffer unduly, and to use his judgment when to prolong and when not to prolong life. A court cannot decide in total detail what a physician...
There is also a growing feeling that people do have the right to refuse treatment that might painfully prolong lives. A Florida court ruled in 1971 that a terminally ill woman had a right to decline treatment that would, at best, provide her with a short, painful extension of her life. Said the court: "It is not in the interest of justice for this court of equity to order that she be kept alive against her will...
When Joseph and Julia Quinlan asked that their daughter be allowed to die, they had the full support of their Roman Catholic priest, Father Thomas Trapasso of Our Lady of the Lake Church. Said he: "Extraordinary means are not morally required to prolong life." The vice chancellor of his diocese, Father Herbert Tillyer, agreed: "There is a profound difference between killing someone and allowing a person to spend his or her last few hours or days free from the maze of machinery that is beautiful only so long as there is hope for some recovery...
Permanently Muzzled. Parliamentary ratification means that Mrs. Gandhi can prolong the state of emergency indefinitely. So far, she has given no indication of how long it might continue, although she noted last week that "nobody wants this type of situation to last forever." She hastened to add, however, that even when the emergency is lifted "there can be no return to the total license and political permissiveness" of before. That could mean that the ordinarily opinionated Indian press might be permanently muzzled. Last week the government indicated how seriously it regards control of the news when it expelled three foreign...
...Advocates of euthanasia insist that a terminally ill person should be allowed to choose between prolonging his life and ending it. Pollster Mervin Field reports that a good many Californians, at least, appear to agree. In a recent Field poll of 504 Californians carefully selected to provide a good cross section of the state's population, 87% agreed that incurably ill patients should have the right to refuse medication that might prolong their lives. A significant number of those polled were willing to go even further. When asked if incurably ill patients should have the right...