Born without a Face

ok, so right now I am watching TLC, there is a program on called "Born Without a Face"...
It seems this little girl was born with SEVERE birth defects....she in fact did not have a face.
No mouth, no nose, eyes covered with skin. She had a hole in the base of her skull, where Cerebral Spinal Fliud was leaking out (the fliud that bathes the brain and spinal cord), she's just 1 yr old and she has had 3 surgeries I think.
They admit she is in constant pain, she can't breath thru her mouth (has a trachyotomy) she can't eat/swallow (fed thru a tube directly into her stomach), she has no nasal cavity (needed to create one)....
With 3 surgeries she is still severely, severely deformed and undergoing more surgeries.

The show isn't over, but my question is,
At what point should medicine/science NOT intervene?
She should have died, that was natures way....
Perhaps she will be able to function after all these surgeries, perhaps she will be able to speak, eat and look somewhat normal...but should this have even been attempted?
I kinda don't think so...medicine shouldn't intervene to this extent. What for? so the parents don't have to grieve?


thoughts?

EDITED to add- see Gwendolyn's post on this page to see a pic of the girl

[Edited on Aug 29, 2005 by thorr74]

I think Billy Idol should put together a benefit concert for the poor little tyke.

thanks for not letting this die without at least ONE comment

I think they should really end her suffering. At this point, the parents are doing it for selfish reasons: they just want their daughter. I can understand that, I don't fault them. However, what kind of life could she possibly have? The humane, loving thing to do would be to let her go. Let her have peace. It's a sad situation.

I'm not sure if I can ever have an answer for this kind of question. However I thank you for posting it, I’m going to print it out and bring it to my 'Contemporary moral problems' class, we'll have fun talking about it

Another case that we just got finished looking over, involved a father who killed his 12-year-old daughter w/ an extreme case of cerebral palsy (sp?) she only weighed 40 lbs and had the mental capacity of a 3-month-old baby. She was in constant pain and undergoing constant surguries. The father ended her life by asphyxiating her in the garage w/ the car fumes (coulda picked a more humane way). This went to court and the jury found him not guilty however it then the Supreme Court intervened and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

Wasn't that in Sask. Canada? ...I totally forget his name...been an on going battle for something like 5-10 yrs now

my god, that poor child.

Perhaps someone should find someone who was in a position/condition such as this and ask them their opinion on the subject?

I wonder if they would agree with the "put 'em out of their misery" approach to the subject.

I mean, personally I tend to agree, just sayin'.

Wow, thats a tricky moral question... I dont think any answer for that question would be the right one

if there is hope that she can live a somewhat agony free life, you have to let her live. That's just my opinion.

found it.........is this what your were talking about??

" Saskatchewan farmer, Robert Latimer, was tried for the mercy killing of his severely disabled daughter in 1997-OCT. He was found guilty of second degree murder which, under Canadian law, requires a 10 year minimum jail sentence. The jury recommended that he be eligible for parole after one year. The sentence has been appealed through various courts."

I agree...but there is NO WAY you could "let her live" without major medical interventions.....she should have died within days......just to contribute again

Yep thats the one from my text book. That case is quite a bit diffrent though atleast moraly because of the age of the subject. Also in the Latimer case the girl was not going to get any better nor was she ever going to develop into anything more then a drooling thing that had to be hand fed. This baby that you're speaking of sounds like she's got all the right gears and cogs to live a life, however god thought i'd be fun to leave the oven on too long. So this does not sound like a case of mercy killing just a horrible story of what this child will have to go through at such a young age.

The scary part of these questions comes when you ask "Who judges the quaity of life, or my life" Find anyone that is severly disabled and i'm sure they have a very strong opinon on this subject.

It should also be noted that most of what is pain and suffering atm for this child she will not remember assuming they can get her in a better condiiton before two or three years. All of the suffering currently atleast long term is on the parents.

thats her....her face in the pic is after either 3 or 4 surgeries already

I believe that was Robert Latimer. (Death by the car fumes is actually one of the most pinless ways to go, your body just goes to sleep and you dont wake up, its not like being gassed)

I geuss your right, just sounds grusome.

Jesus that's wrong. And I realize I made a Billy Idol joke in this thread.

Since intervention in a premature status is why my sister is alive, I find it a touchy subject, although I do believe that there are times when it's best not to intervene. Of course who has the right to make that decision becomes the real question? Even more difficult when the person involved doesn't later grow to have enough mental capacity to have a say in it one way or the other.

I would not force somone else to endure an existance I would refuse for myself.

fucking tasteless, asshole.

this is all so sad
PrimaFacia put my feelings into words though: The scary part of these questions comes when you ask "Who judges the quaity of life, or my life" Find anyone that is severly disabled and i'm sure they have a very strong opinon on this subject.

and Hexe said:I think they should really end her suffering.
which I agreed to until I looked at the links. It seems a little too late now. I mean she seems to be thriving (but only with assistance I believe) I do feel it a little cruel to Kill her. but how many more surgeries will this take. and how many life threating ones? and how much pain will she be in the majority of the time.