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Comment by logronoide | Hacker News Reader

Believe me, you read this kind of articles from a complete different perspective when the "beating heart corpse" is your mother and the decision to disconnect her is on you. I hope nobody has to do it in her lifetime.

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I know. I had to endure the same with my sister. She was only 24- tragic bike accident. We gave her one day that way after all the tests- apnea, ear flush, even an additional EEG which we requested and was sparse as the night sky- came back negative. We looked at the weekly costs and made an informed decision as well as choosing some organ donation options.

Watching her wheeled out of that hospital room heart still beating was certainly the hardest moment of my life so far. We never saw the actual 'plug' pulled and i actually prefer(red) it that way.

I deeply empathize that the decision was all on you. doing it collectively was a hair easier. hope your emotional/personal recovery has been as swift as possible.

hugs a terrible position to be in - I am on the other side waiting for the call for a new kidney.

Thanks for sharing that cbennett, and good luck to you walshemj.

I lost one of my closest friends a few years ago to an accident but was heartened to know that his organs went on to help others.

Thoughts and prayers for you both and everyone else in the same or similar situations.

It is indeed. I had that misfortune and it is the most painful moment in my life so far. I cannot recall how many alternative scenarios I ran through in my mind, with the doctors - all the way from cutting edge medicine to the mystical. Nobody should go through that pain, but life deals you such cards once in a while.

Well, I dunno man, my parents have lived a pretty long life. If they had the choice between a long coma or death, the latter would be preferable.

I carry an organ donor/DNR card with me just in case, if my brain is kinda dead or even if my heart is not beating, just do whatever with the body.

That's life as we know it, the world will keep going.

I believe you. I'm the only surviving member of what was our three member nuclear family (four if you count grandma, which I do). Even when someone is terminally ill and you KNOW they're dying, you still cling, without realizing, to some weird hope they can live, a hope demonstrated by the heartbreak that happens when they finally die. To have to be the one who makes that moment finally happen has to be horrible beyond all the rationale that a human being can muster.

Children should not have to make this kind of decision—talk to your parents & kids about a living will today.

A living will does not take away the decision. You might think it would - but it doesn't.

Interesting. Under what circumstance would you want to go against it?

It's not about going against it or not. The point is, even if the will says outright "end my life support when I become a beating heart corpse", ultimately you still have to make the decision, you still have to say the words, and the will doesn't make the task any easier.

That seems really weird and illegal. It sounds like hospitals are placating to the family. I understand that they'd want to hesitate though-- the people who might sue them are the surviving family.

Living wills are legally binding documents: http://info.legalzoom.com/living-wills-binding-documents-220...

>I understand that they'd want to hesitate though-- the people who might sue them are the surviving family.

It's also the family, not the person having written the will several months or years ago, that has all the latest details on the condition and the options.

Legally binding, yes, but someone has to be the executor of said will. The executor is the one who has the power to make the decision asked for, in this case, usually family.

Well my mom has made is damn well known I am not to prolong her life if she isn't able to tell me so. Fortunately that is one decision she has relieved me of, now if we could just find a way for pets to tell us

Absolutely.

And on the other end of the spectrum, you have people in suffering with consciousness who wish to be euthanized.

There's may be no "one size fits all" morality to be found here.

It depends how they ended up in that state. If someone slowly fails, the family has more time to accept things, and know what kind of decision they might have to make.

It depends on how "lifetime" is defined. This article makes that difficult.

Conversely, what if this "beating heart corpse" is the one whose organs you or a loved one needs to survive?

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