Possible Points to Contemplate for Debate:
Point: What is the circumstance?
Is the person in a coma with no brain activity, never expected to come out of the coma? What then? What if there is a small, but finite chance of coming out of the coma?
Point: Would you remove the feeding tube?
Following an anoxic insult, a 30-year-old female patient resides in a nursing home for 2 years without any evidence of meaningful neurologic recovery. There is some controversy regarding the extent of her brain damage; some doctors have diagnosed her as being in a PVS whereas others disagree. It is agreed that she suffers severe neurologic deficit. At baseline she opens her eyes and appears to track family members; she smiles but she does not follow commands. She is hemodynamically stable and is sustained by a feeding tube. There is no living will. Both the husband and family state that the patient has never volunteered an opinion regarding end-of-life issues in the past, apart from one occasion when she casually mentioned that she would not ever want to 'live like a vegetable'.
Her husband petitions you to remove the feeding tube and 'let my wife die with dignity'. However, her family says that the patient responds to them and they do not feel she is in any discomfort. The family opposes removal of the feeding tube. The patient's mother appeals to the State to intervene and stop any attempt at removal of life support on humanitarian grounds. The current law of the State she resides in is that there must be 'clear and convincing' evidence of a patient's wishes before life-sustaining treatment (LST) can be removed from that patient.
Point: Psalm 22:11-15
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my mouth* is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
Point: Matthew 17:8-18
32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ 33 The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ 34 Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ 35 Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 38 Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children.
Point: Matthew 15:13-20
13 He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.* And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’ 15 But Peter said to him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’ 16 Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’
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