[Buddha-l] Buddhist Bioethics

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

John Chamberlin schreef:

> Buddhist Bioethics:  If I might impose on the group on a matter of  
> Buddhism and bioethics, I think it might be useful in helping us  
> resolve a difficult bioethics case. I work as a clinical social  
> worker on a palliative care team at a large community hospital in  
> California. I’m also a member of the bioethics committee at this  
> hospital and a practicing Buddhist. We currently have a case that has  
> been referred to the committee by the attending physician. The  
> patient is an 82 year old, Vietnamese female who is in a vegetative  
> state as a consequence of several massive strokes. She’s on a  
> ventilator and all the other life-prolonging technology that might be  
> expected.  She’s been living at a nursing home for the past three  
> years. In the opinion of the physicians attending the patient she has  
> no chance at recovery, or even in recovering to any extent that might  
> improve her quality of life.  This patient is on a feeding tube of  
> course, and consistently aspirates her food causing pneumonia and  
> frequent, repeated hospitalizations among other medical complications  
> common to patients in vegetative states.
>
>  The patient as well as her large, multi-generational family are  
> Buddhist. The attending physician referred her to the committee,  
> because the family continues to insist that all life-prolonging  
> measures and hospitalizations be continued, despite the fact that the  
> patient is slowly declining in health, and despite the fact that she  
> will never regain consciousness. Repeated CT and MRI scans of her  
> brain have shown terrible and irreparable brain damage as a result of  
> her strokes. The attending physician’s ethics are compromised,  
> because he must continue to provide futile care (as defined as  
> medical care which has no chance in restoring the patient to any  
> measure of health) at the dictates of the patient’s family, and the  
> patient is suffering greatly as a consequence of the situation. The  
> patient has no signed advance directive as to her own wishes, so the  
> physician, by California state law, must follow the wishes of the  
> next-of-ken.
>
> The family continually sites that their Buddhist ethics prohibits  
> withdrawing the patient from the life-prolonging technology. The  
> family is aware that the patient is suffering and is essentially  
> being tortured by her caregivers as her life continues to be  
> prolonged by technology.
>
> In my layman’s understanding of the Eightfold Path, behaving in ways  
> that will directly cause the suffering of another being is to be  
> avoided? I realize that this case is more complicated than this, but  
> perhaps this is a good place to start. What is the stance of Orthodox  
> Buddhist ethics in this case, and is there anything any one can add  
> that might help us resolve this sad situation?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Jack Chamberlin
> _______________________________________________
> buddha-l mailing list
> buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l
>
>
>
Hi Jack,

I don't see any reason why Buddhism would prohibit stopping the life 
support. The Buddha himself silently agreed to arhants taking their own 
life, and even maybe having themselves killed by others. There is this 
Jataka where the Bodhisattva kills a murderer who wants to sink a boat 
full of people. So the value of life is not absolute. But what kind of 
'Buddhist ethics' have these relatives in mind?  They may belong to a 
group with different opinions. The question is how far someone can 
divert from the general ethical standards of the country he or she is 
living in? Maybe it's not a question of ethics but a question of justice.

Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms