Real Life Ethical Scenario : 13 Year old Refuses Heart Transplant.

Is the fact that she is refusing the heart which could save her life considered a form of passive euthanasia?
In my opinion it is. In interview do you think describing this as euthanasia would be acceptable?

Medicine can only ever be an option, not a force. Any patient has the right to refuse treatment, providing they are sufficiently informed. At 13, it could be argued that the patient isn't mature enough to make that decision, but so long as she is made fully aware of all her options and suitably advised by relatives, friends and healthcare workers, then I think she had the right to die. (Thinking about that, there's actually not that much difference between refusing treatment and euthanasia)

I think it's brilliant how you posed that as a question.

allowing her to not have the treatment is the same as a patient not being given a drug which would help prolong life etccc...

ye....
i was actually aggreeing with what you said exaclty...
drugs, surgery etc are all treatment (somebody earlier in the thread seemed to think otherwise)

Just one question. How long does the girl have left to live? Does she have months or weeks or years?

How long is a piece of string?

i talked to someone i know on the medical interview board for hyms and they agreed that it is a form of passive euthanasia. allowing her to not have the treatment is the same as a patient not being given a drug which would help prolong life etccc...

one second....is passive euthanasia legal in the uk//?? Cos it seems like this is passive euthanasia and yet it is being allowed....

I always thought that passive euthanasia would be something like withdrawing a feeding tube?

A patient turning down a treatment which could potentially prolong/save their lives seems like a very different thing to me.

the patient is a minor in the eyes of the law however as she has capacity it can be assumed that she is well aware of her decision to refuse treatment. however on the flip side should her ability to fully comprehend the consequences of refusing treatment at this time of great stress at such a young age (in the great scheme of things) cause doctors and her family to override her wishes and continue?

Firstly, her family support her decision, so they're not going to be overriding anything. Even if they didn't support her decision, in practice it would be very difficult for them to force her into the transplant assessments.

As for the doctors, they could get a court order overriding both, but as I've said before, psychological assessments are a part of the transplant process and she'd almost certainly not pass them if she didn't want the op, so it would be a fairly futile exercise.