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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Terminally ill patients and their families would have more powerto decide how they die in Argentina under a "dignified death" lawbeing debated Wednesday in the Senate. If the measure is passed as expected, families will no longer haveto struggle to find judges to order doctors to end life-support forpeople who are dying or in a permanent vegetative state. Gettingsuch approval can be very difficult in many countries, particularlyin Latin America, where opposition from the Roman Catholic churchstill runs strong. The law was being debated in the Senate after passing the lowerhouse last year. Overwhelming approval was expected in part becausethe measure expressly forbids euthanasia or any other acts thatactually cause a death, and instead focuses on the rights ofpatients and their families. It also absolves doctors of any legalresponsibility when they follow the patient's wishes. The law applies to the terminally ill as well as patients sufferingfrom irreversible and incurable illness or injury, and says theyhave the right to refuse surgical procedures, hydration andnutrition, reanimation and life-support systems. Rather than seek acourt order, all they need do is prepare an advanced health-caredirective and sign it before a notary, with two witnesses. The ethical challenges surrounding end-of-life issues become moredifficult when the patient can no longer speak for himself and hasnot prepared such a formal document. In these cases, the Argentinelaw empowers family members or legal representatives to make thedecision on the patients' behalf. Some lawmakers expressed discomfort about withdrawing feeding tubesor life support to someone who can no longer communicate. DeputyJulian Obligo of the conservative PRO party pleaded with senatorsto eliminate this reference, alleging that it amounts to euthanasiaby hastening death. And Sen. Sonia Escudero, a dissident member ofthe governing Peronist party, alleged that withdrawing nutritionand hydration could cause pain to a dying person. Medical and bioethical experts say otherwise — that anabundance of scientific evidence shows that dying people naturallystop eating and drinking for a reason — their bodies areshutting down — and that force-feeding them at that pointactually causes pain. In contrast, without food and drink, themetabolism produces substances that actually produce feelings ofeuphoria. By withdrawing feeding tubes, "you make their time morecomfortable, not less, when they are near death," said Dan Brock,who teaches medical ethics at Harvard University in Cambridge,Mass. "All the evidence suggests they are not suffering." "This was highly controversial 20 years ago when it began to bedebated in the United States, and the Catholic Church stillofficially opposes it, but here anyway it's now a matter ofaccepted medical practice," Brock added. "This is important becausein general Latin America has been very behind on these issues andso it's nice to see Argentina leading the way.". I am an expert from smart-rfid-tag.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China RFID Laundry Tags , China UHF Metal Tag, RFID Animal Tags,and more.
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