Touched and troubled by Amy
CMAJ 1997;156:1116
See response from: S. Cameron
There are several troubling things about the decision to die recounted by Dr. Cameron ("Learning from Amy: a remarkable patient provokes anguished debate about rationality, autonomy and the right to die," CMAJ 1997;156:229-31). I especially agree with a statement in the article, "he also noted wryly that the current test of rationality was often concurrence with the opinion of one's physician."
I cannot help wondering whether the tone would be different if Amy was 27 or perhaps 17 rather than 77. I am concerned that this article was written by someone in family medicine, who had only a superficial knowledge of what was really happening with Amy, rather than by her psychiatrist, who had been able to spend some time with her. I cannot help wondering whether I am being sold the opinion of Cameron rather than the heart of Amy. What would this article have been like if someone had been able to get past her superficial defences to find out what was really in her heart?
This is the crux of the rush to grant people their "choice" to commit suicide: we are presented only with a very narrow, positive aspect of a person's decision to die. What about all of the other factors we do not hear about? What if a relative had been found? What if there was a concerned daughter, son or grandchildren who had lost track of Amy because of her delusional thinking? Why was she so isolated? Is that considered normal?
I wonder why Amy's first decision to "go swimming" was in a place where there were people in boats. Was there perhaps a deep longing to be rescued? And, somehow, the people in hospital who treated her sided with her "wish to die" rather than her deep longing to be rescued.
If any adult in our society really wishes to commit suicide, there is really nothing anyone can do to stop that person -- we all have that choice. Patients who end up in the medical system are by that very fact requesting our assistance to help them out of a very difficult, painful and often poorly understood situation. It behooves us to ally ourselves with life, not with death.
William D. Gutowski, MD, BSc
Chilliwack, BC
 |
Send a letter to the editor responding to this letter
Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction au sujet de cette lettre |
Letters