Non-Stop 154th Propaganda to Force Sporns to Accept Euthanasia. MOTIVE?

[makapaaa]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>The right to choose your own fate
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Tan Dawn Wei
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Despite having no health problems, Mr Kua has signed a living will to ensure that his children don't have to make hard decisions on his behalf. -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
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On the third day after the Advance Medical Directive (AMD) Act was passed in 1996, Mr Kua Cheng Chuan, then 37 years old, walked into a clinic to sign a living will.
But the clinic had not even set up the documentation process.
'The nurses said, 'don't be so impatient, you're not going to die anytime soon',' said the technical officer who works in a government agency, with a laugh.
But it was something Mr Kua, now 49, had been paying keen attention to since the Bill was tabled and discussed in Parliament in 1995.
He had even written to Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao in support of it.
'It's about having the right to choose your own fate. You decide before you lose the ability to decide,' the father of two sons aged 21 and 16 said in Mandarin.
He is married to a primary school teacher.
His own father died after a car accident when Mr Kua was just 12. Years later, his seamstress mother told him and his four siblings that it was a good thing their father did not survive.
'Had he become a vegetable, she would never have been able to cope with taking care of him and five young children,' he said.
He has seen other relatives, like his father-in-law and maternal grandfather, live out painful last days confined to a bed, chalking up mounting hospital bills.
'Is there value or meaning to prolonging your life for another year or two? You're a burden to your family, even if they can afford your medical fees.'
Whenever he can, he brings up the topic of AMD with his family and colleagues and persuades them to sign it.
Some have taken his advice, but most have not got around to doing it.
Despite having a clean bill of health, Mr Kua does not obsessively watch what he eats.
His approach to life: Do what you want now instead of waiting till it is too late.
'If you want to travel, go travel. If you want to change jobs, do it,' said the avid Chinese chess player who enjoys collecting stamps.
Signing an AMD is also his way of making sure his children do not have to make hard decisions on his behalf.
'Or they may be saddled with guilt for the rest of their lives,' he said.

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A burden to your family
'Is there value or meaning to prolonging your life for another year or two? You're a burden to your family, even if they can afford your medical fees.'
MR KUA CHENG CHUAN

 

[makapaaa]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Home > News > Home > Story


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<!-- headline one : start --><TR>'No operation for me - I'm leaving it to God'


</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Nur Dianah Suhaimi


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Madam Mariam Abdullah, seen here with her only child, Madam Rose Ismail, has ovarian cancer but is philosophical about the prospect of death. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM


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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Madam Mariam Abdullah, 80, is sick of being sick.
Since she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005, she has gone for chemotherapy treatments and popped countless pills.
Now her doctors are saying that the cancer has spread and they cannot help her much unless she is willing to go for an operation to remove the cancerous tumour.
But she has decided to leave her fate to God. 'I don't want to go for an operation and I'm sick of going to the hospital. I've been going for treatments and taking bitter medicine but all for what? I'm still sick,' said the strong-willed great-grandmother of one.
She now takes the chemotherapy pills prescribed by her doctor. If they do not work, she is expected to have only six months to live.
Although she is aware her time is drawing near, Madam Mariam does not give the appearance of being worried or disturbed.
'Even if I don't die now, I still have to die some day. All living things will eventually die. Trees die, animals die. It's the way life is,' she said last Friday.
Her only child, Madam Rose Ismail, 62, wants her mother to go for the operation but she is aware there are risks involved. Because of her old age and frail health, the older woman might not survive the operation.
Said Madam Rose: 'I've been crying every night since I found out my mother is sick. I don't want her to die.'
The two have been inseparable since Madam Rose was born. Madam Mariam's husband, a Dutch soldier, died fighting in Indonesia's war of independence in 1948. She became a widow at age 20.
Life was difficult for the mother-daughter pair. Madam Mariam had to work as a maid and kitchen helper to raise her daughter.
Since she is too weak now to move around much, Madam Mariam spends her days in the confines of the four-room Tampines flat she shares with her daughter's family.
She passes the time by praying and reading the Quran. When she is lonely in the afternoons, she would lie down and think about her late relatives and friends.
"All my close friends are dead. I miss them. When they were around, we would visit one another and have so much fun,' she said.
While her needs are few, she has one last wish - to visit Mecca to perform the haj. But she knows she neither has the money nor the time. 'I'll just leave it to God. If I die tomorrow, then so be it.'

 

[makapaaa]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Sisters care for dying mum at home
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Tan Dawn Wei
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Ms Karen Loh (left) and her older sister Nyet Chieh (centre) attending to their 76-year-old mother, Madam Cheng Yok Lan, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in early 2006. Madam Cheng had decided to stop treatment when she had a relapse last year. With them is HCA Hospice Care's palliative staff nurse Amy Lim. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Ms Karen Loh used to argue with her mother over every little thing.
But since her mum, Madam Cheng Yok Lan, 76, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in early 2006, she has gone along with all her wishes, including stopping treatment when the cancer came back a year later.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>No regrets 'We wouldn't have done anything differently. We've never forced our mum into doing anything but let her make her own decisions.'
MS KAREN LOH



</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Madam Cheng had not taken to chemotherapy well, so when her oncologist told the family there was nothing much he could do anymore, Ms Loh, 37, and her sister Nyet Chieh, 38, turned to palliative home care so their mother could die at home.
'We didn't even know that there was such a service until the hospital referred us to HCA Hospice Care,' said Ms Loh, a treasury analyst at a finance company.
They would not have been able to cope without the help of HCA, a charity which is the largest hospice home care provider in Singapore - they knew nothing about dressing the older woman's fungating chest wounds or attending to all her other needs.
'It's stressful at home, but at least we know what she wants,' said Ms Loh, a mother of one.
Her parents separated when she was very young and her mother single-handedly raised her two daughters in Kedah, Malaysia, by working as a hairdresser.
For the past year, any free time the sisters have, including annual leave, has been spent caring for their mother, who is now living out her last days in Nyet Chieh's HDB home in Woodlands.
Family holidays have also had to take a back seat - something that didn't go down too well with Ms Loh's six-year-old daughter.
The sisters say that in the two years they have had to deal with their mother's cancer, the most difficult time has been now.
She is bedridden, often restless and unable to speak.
'The most challenging thing has been keeping her comfortable,' said Ms Loh.
The sisters have no regrets about giving up the medical treatment.
'We wouldn't have done anything differently. We've never forced our mum into doing anything but let her make her own decisions,' said Ms Loh.
She also managed to ask her mum for her forgiveness.
'I told her that I never said sorry for all the times I argued with her. But she said mothers and daughters don't need to seek forgiveness from one another,' she said, her eyes welling up. 'The only thing we hope for now is that she will go in a peaceful way.'

 

[makapaaa]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Dad couldn't pull plug on son


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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->When his 18-year-old son met with a road accident in the United States in 1983 and went into a coma, American doctors advised Dr Tan (not his real name) to 'let your son go'.
After all, the young man had permanent brain damage and could survive only as a human vegetable, they said.
As a medical doctor, he knew what that meant. But as a father, he could not bring himself to pull the plug.
'As a doctor, I knew he had only a 4 per cent chance to live and even if he were to survive, he would be a vegetable. But this is my son. I couldn't let him die,' said the senior practitioner, who looks to be in his 70s and spoke on condition that his identity not be revealed.
His son went on to live for 18 more years, paralysed and often needing help from machines.
He died from pneumonia in 2000 at the age of 36.
Dr Tan and his wife have three other children - two sons and a daughter.
The 18 years the couple spent caring for their son were not easy.
They first had to fly him home from the US, where he had been studying. Dr Tan booked five seats at the tail end of the plane and hired a doctor and an intensive care unit nurse to accompany his son on the long trip.
Once in Singapore, the teenager spent 11 months in an intensive care unit at a hospital.
One day, during an occupational therapy session, he woke up from his coma.
Said Dr Tan: 'It came as a surprise to many. Before that, everyone thought I was talking to a dead person.'
Although he was conscious after that, he remained paralysed for the rest of his life. He could neither move nor speak.
Once his condition stabilised, the family took him home. The maid's room downstairs was converted into a fully equipped intensive care unit.
His wife cared for their son with the help of two maids. Each day, she fed him via a tube, sucked out the phlegm from his throat and cleared his bodily waste. She nursed him so well that in the 18 years, he never had a bed sore.
Even then, he had health complications, including seven attacks of aspiration pneumonia when saliva got into his lungs. He died from this in 2000.
Said Dr Tan: 'The 18 years caring for him involved a lot of money and sacrifice for my wife and me. But we have no regrets. We did it out of love for him.'
Dr Tan is strongly against euthanasia, saying that the real reason people choose to pull the plug on their relatives is to save money.
A day in an intensive care unit costs about $2,000.
He said: 'There is a Confucian saying which goes 'By the bedside of the chronic sick, there is no filial son'. Sadly, this is what's happening in Singapore now. Nobody wants to take care of their sick family members. So they choose the short-cut method of letting them die.'
Nur Dianah Suhaimi



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We did it out of love
'The 18 years caring for him involved a lot of money and sacrifice for my wife and me. But we have no regrets. We did it out of love for him.'
DR TAN (not his real name), on why he refused to pull the plug on his son, who went into a coma after a road accident in 1983

 

[radon39]

I believe sa big shot needs to be put to sleep????

Same as the organ donation...someone needs a organ??

 

[siloti]

Sir, it is misleading to write :"Non-Stop 154th Propaganda to Force Sporns to Accept Euthanasia. MOTIVE?"

For a start, we dont practise Euthanasia, and Euthanasia is different for Advance-Medical-Directives.

Dont you belief in democracy, that people have their choice??

For some terminally ill person, if they elect to demise gracefully, shouldnt we respect their wish. AMD was not forced down............ you can choose not to sign any AMD, and our competent doctors will surely take care of you.

Think about it, Thank You.

 

[theblackhole]

"...Dr Tan is strongly against euthanasia, saying that the real reason people choose to pull the plug on their relatives is to save money.
A day in an intensive care unit costs about $2,000.
He said: 'There is a Confucian saying which goes 'By the bedside of the chronic sick, there is no filial son'. Sadly, this is what's happening in Singapore now. Nobody wants to take care of their sick family members. So they choose the short-cut method of letting them die.''....

This is a very irresponsible and insensitive remark made by this Dr Tan. I applaud him for taking good care of his son. But his remarks speak volumes of the type of character he really is - arrogant, self-righteous,contemptuous and insensitive. It's your karma to look after your vegetable son.Don't preach to others when you don't even know their hearts and their minds in making the final decision.

Who wants to let their own relatives die? Please stop talking cock Dr Tan and please do not hail yourself as the righteous model parent. It's damned disappointing to read about such remarks made by a doctor. Shameful indeed.

 

[Cestbon]

Gov. cannot afford to pay for the medical bill for those without money lo. That why come out with 154th brainwash news.

 

[ahbengsong]

When his 18-year-old son met with a road accident in the United States in 1983 and went into a coma, American doctors advised Dr Tan (not his real name) to 'let your son go'.
After all, the young man had permanent brain damage and could survive only as a human vegetable, they said.
As a medical doctor, he knew what that meant. But as a father, he could not bring himself to pull the plug.
'As a doctor, I knew he had only a 4 per cent chance to live and even if he were to survive, he would be a vegetable. But this is my son. I couldn't let him die,' said the senior practitioner, who looks to be in his 70s and spoke on condition that his identity not be revealed.
His son went on to live for 18 more years, paralysed and often needing help from machines.
He died from pneumonia in 2000 at the age of 36.
Dr Tan and his wife have three other children - two sons and a daughter.
The 18 years the couple spent caring for their son were not easy.
They first had to fly him home from the US, where he had been studying. Dr Tan booked five seats at the tail end of the plane and hired a doctor and an intensive care unit nurse to accompany his son on the long trip.
Once in Singapore, the teenager spent 11 months in an intensive care unit at a hospital.
One day, during an occupational therapy session, he woke up from his coma.
Said Dr Tan: 'It came as a surprise to many. Before that, everyone thought I was talking to a dead person.'
Although he was conscious after that, he remained paralysed for the rest of his life. He could neither move nor speak.
Once his condition stabilised, the family took him home. The maid's room downstairs was converted into a fully equipped intensive care unit.
His wife cared for their son with the help of two maids. Each day, she fed him via a tube, sucked out the phlegm from his throat and cleared his bodily waste. She nursed him so well that in the 18 years, he never had a bed sore.
Even then, he had health complications, including seven attacks of aspiration pneumonia when saliva got into his lungs. He died from this in 2000.
Said Dr Tan: 'The 18 years caring for him involved a lot of money and sacrifice for my wife and me. But we have no regrets. We did it out of love for him.'
Dr Tan is strongly against euthanasia, saying that the real reason people choose to pull the plug on their relatives is to save money.
A day in an intensive care unit costs about $2,000.
He said: 'There is a Confucian saying which goes 'By the bedside of the chronic sick, there is no filial son'. Sadly, this is what's happening in Singapore now. Nobody wants to take care of their sick family members. So they choose the short-cut method of letting them die.'
Nur Dianah Suhaimi

I personally knew this "Dr Tan"... his clinic is along east coast road... he is my family doctor before I left singapore... ever since his son passed away.. he has aged a lot... God bless him...