mayoraasei | to be or not to be

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

This soliloquy makes more sense to me every year. LOL.

The Japanese is a race of great believers in stoicism and perseverance.

Once, I may have whole-heartedly agreed with the rhetoric, "There is nothing better than just being alive."

But now, I don't know, as the term "death" becomes less easy to define. Is someone who is still breathing, whose heart is still beating, but who will never again wake to smile at his loved ones still alive?

There are so many patients we keep alive in the name of medical uncertainty. Yes...99% of patients in that state may never wake up again - but, there's always that 1% chance that gives us hope. Maybe 10 years, 20 years, 30 years down the track, science will know what to do.

And then there are patients for whom we wonder if it is better to let them die. The patients who will never regain full function of their bodies or of their minds; the patients for whom every minute of their remaining life will be in suffering, for whom the only anaesthetic that will work would be a morphine-induced coma...those patients whom, without modern medical intervention, would have died, possibly in more peace.

At the extreme of the scale there is the dreaded Locked-In Syndrome. A prison of flesh for a mind often still functioning normally. You can hear and see, but you cannot speak or smile or hold someone's hand. You may be able to feel, but you can't tell the nurses where it hurts.

At those times, whatever my beliefs, whatever my personal convictions, I can understand at least where they stand, those people who wish for euthanasia.

(This rant was actually inspired by the last 10 minutes of The Quiz Show 2. Don't ask.)