Christian Medical Group Weighs In on Quality-of-Life Decision, Advance Directive
by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
April 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Christian physician says when it comes to "quality-of-life" decisions, there is a huge difference of opinion between those making the decision and the patient.Dr. David Stevens is president of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. Stevens says the quality-of-life debate was one of the big factors in the Terri Schiavo case and was weighed by the courts before they ordered her to be starved to death. According to the CMDA spokesman, quality-of-life evaluations often do not coincide with what the victims of the evaluations feel.
"Studies of the health-care community have found that [those making the decision] always thought the quality of life was lower for the patient than the actual patient did," Stevens says.
Such evaluations, he says, are not an exact science. "Any time you take someone's external judgment and impose it upon those who are vulnerable [or] those who are disabled, they always see a life not worth very much -- yet those who are in those conditions often have a very fulfilled life," he explains.
Through its website, CMDA makes available a no-cost guide to end-of-life health care that includes an advance directive form for patients and their families. It was the absence of such documentation in the Terri Schiavo case that stirred much of the surrounding controversy, as her estranged husband, Michael, contended he had heard her tell him at one time she did not want to "live that way."
Stevens acknowledges the media attention on the plight of the Florida woman, who died on March 31 -- almost two weeks after her feeding tube was removed by court order -- has highlighted the importance of a written documentation. He made these comments before Terri Schiavo's death.
"One of the reasons [this] case has been so difficult to decide has been the absence not only of a written advance directive, but even more importantly, the absence of a designated proxy to protect her wishes in the event of incapacitation," he explains, adding that his group's guide is intended to help patients and their families -- and especially people of faith -- to decide these issues before a crisis arises.
"While an advance directive and a proxy can protect patients from harm, they can also make clear what treatments the patient does not want when treatment would only prolong the dying process," Stevens notes.
Stevens also addresses the ethical nature of the Schiavo decision. He says if a patient is dying, artificial nutrition -- such as that provided through a feeding tube -- can provide "comfort care" to a patient who can experience comfort, and "respect care" to one who cannot receive comfort.
"The removal of a feeding tube should never be done with the intent to cause death," the CMDA leader says.
The Florida woman's death this week, says CMDA, reflects a "failure of a medical system that failed to insist on a definitive diagnosis consensus, a legal system that failed to deliver due process, and a culture that failed to distinguish between artificially prolonging life and deliberately ending life."
