Quality of life should be factor in patient's decision

Should an individual be kept alive against his or her will?

Lee Schneider is suing his wife's doctors and their hospital for keeping his wife alive, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Linda Schneider suffers from a rare genetic disorder that is eating at the gray matter inside her skull. Two years ago when she was dying, doctors ignored her husband's request not to take extraordinary measures to save her.

Long before her disease was discovered, the Schneiders completed "advance directives." These documents involve a living will in which patients outline their wishes in writing. It also involves giving medical powers of attorney to relatives who will be legally designated as health proxies, as was Schneider's husband.

The Schneiders case is part of a new wave of lawsuits by other Americans who fight to control how they die. These lawsuits accuse doctors of failing to follow the patients' advance directives and usually comes under the complaint "wrongful life."

If a person decides beforehand to die in peace without doctors taking extreme measures to prolong his or her life, this decision should be respected.

Imagine having someone else make all of your decisions for you. For many people, this would seem inconceivable. Yet there are people like Linda Schneider who depend on their husbands or other family members to make decisions for them.

Having the freedom to make your own decisions about little things such as what to wear and eat everyday is a privilege. These are probably only a few of the reasons why some people have chosen to fill out advance directives.

The New York-based group Choice in Dying reported in the L.A. Times that 20 percent of Americans and 50 percent of seriously ill hospital patients have completed advance directives.

Some people would guess these people have completed these living wills not only for themselves, but also for their loved ones.

Sparing their families and friends the agony of watching them suffer through their illness is probably another reason for people who chose not to have any high-tech medicine used on them.

The choice of not wanting to be a burden to anyone could be another possibility why Americans have chosen to take this road. Particularly for people who are very independent, these are probably the extra steps they have taken in safeguarding against becoming a burden to anyone.

There are laws now that help Americans control their own deaths.

In 1990, Congress made into law the Patient Self-Determination Act, which requires hospitals to inform patients of their right to file advance directives and to refuse medical treatments. By 1992, every state had either case law or an explicit statute permitting advance directives, the L.A. Times reported.

Whatever reasons Americans choose to make out these advance directives, the right to die in peace should be acknowledged and respected.

Tino Poti is a reporter for the Daily Forty-Niner.