I was procrastinating away on youtube the other day when I came across this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMlVNFpzKNI
It's a local news story from the US about a boy who (at the time) had just turned two. The kid was born with a condition known as anencephaly. This, if you've not heard of it, is the result of a neural tube defect that stops the brain from forming correctly. Babies born with this defect lack the vast majority of the brain and only have a brainsteam which is capable of supporting the autonomic nervous system (breathing, heart rate etc). However, the lack of a forebrain rules out them ever having any conscious awareness and higher level of cognition. They're pretty much a vegetable and generally die within a couple of days, if they weren't already miscarried but the odd one survives if there is a strong degree of medical intervention.
This brings me back to the video. The boy depicted in it is kept alive by 12 medications and suffers for siezures and other problems. The newsreader proclaims it a miracle and that he defies science. I don't think so. The medicine is all that is keeping him alive (and I use that term loosely) and it seems to me that it would be kinder to just let him die. He'll never have a life of his own and it seems selfish of the parents to keep him alive for their own sakes.
There was another case similar to this back in the 90s as well( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_K ).
Anyway, my main point of this is: what do you think of this situation? I've heard a few arguments and seen the mess that is the youtube comments (which are rife with inaccuracies and misunderstandings), so I thought I'd come here instead.
It's a local news story from the US about a boy who (at the time) had just turned two. The kid was born with a condition known as anencephaly. This, if you've not heard of it, is the result of a neural tube defect that stops the brain from forming correctly. Babies born with this defect lack the vast majority of the brain and only have a brainsteam which is capable of supporting the autonomic nervous system (breathing, heart rate etc). However, the lack of a forebrain rules out them ever having any conscious awareness and higher level of cognition. They're pretty much a vegetable and generally die within a couple of days, if they weren't already miscarried but the odd one survives if there is a strong degree of medical intervention.
This brings me back to the video. The boy depicted in it is kept alive by 12 medications and suffers for siezures and other problems. The newsreader proclaims it a miracle and that he defies science. I don't think so. The medicine is all that is keeping him alive (and I use that term loosely) and it seems to me that it would be kinder to just let him die. He'll never have a life of his own and it seems selfish of the parents to keep him alive for their own sakes.
There was another case similar to this back in the 90s as well( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_K ).
Anyway, my main point of this is: what do you think of this situation? I've heard a few arguments and seen the mess that is the youtube comments (which are rife with inaccuracies and misunderstandings), so I thought I'd come here instead.