Should doctors decide when we live and die?
A case in the UK if a young woman, aged 19, who had a degenerating disease and expressed the desire to live as long as it was possible. The doctor's decided otherwise and too legal action to stop the family discussing the issue. They even had to go to court to discuss it after her death. If her family had taken the young woman, Sudiksha, out of care they would have broken the law. Sudiksha tried to fight her case in the courts.
The relevant hospital authorities took an autonomous decision to take Sudiksha off law support therefore ensuring her early demise. There are private treatments she could have tried but they are very expensive, her parents could not afford them, and because of the hospital's using the law for the their own ends the family could not employ cloud funding.
On the surface the hospital simply used the law to stop discussion of the case (Daily Mail, Sep. 23, 2023) for their own ends.
Now
I understand many people have an absolute faith in doctors and medicine, it is after all a science (or is it) but should this provide extraordinary power for doctors.
Why in liberal societies should any group or institution have such power? Think! Why?
My attitude to doctors has been formed from engaging with the claims of psychiatry, a science that is based entirely on the profession, proved entirely by the profession, described entirely by the profession (and drug companies), and treatments decided by the profession. The power of an elite group or a science?