A Crime of Compassion

Barbara, a nurse, is accused of “murder”, by the audience of a TV show named the Phil Donahue show. She had a patient, named Mac, who had lung cancer and was resuscitate 52 times. It was between the years of 1970s and 80s, and the law of how many times someone should be resuscitated have not passed yet. Barbara injected Mac with pain medication and did not press the code button until after he was dead. Now after being resuscitated for that amount of time you could only imagine his pain and stress. The nurse should not be accused of murder because the man “who she murdered” begged for his life to be taken, he was terminally ill, and the doctors were just prolonging his life and not really saving it.
Patients, like Mac, have the right to decided if they want to die or not. In the 1970s-1980s, such laws have not been passed yet but out of common courtesy and someone begging to take their life away-what would you do? Mac had decided way before the 52nd resuscitate that he wanted to give up on life. His wife, Maura, even agreed with his decision. After being a young well put together man that was a cop with an endless cough to someone who can not even stand up by himself, was very overwhelming and the six months of his treatment was not enough. “He begged us: ‘Mercy...for God’s sake, please just let me go’.” (Huttmann. 187) How many times does a patient have to ask or even beg to take their life before you do so, and it should have not been up to the doctor but up to their family.
“..when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony... ‘Pain...no more...Barbara...do something...God, let me go.’” (188) Those quotes are proof that the medications were not working and Mac was terminally ill, which means that he will eventually die. Being alive is basically being able to do things and live on your own, with Mac’s situation he was basically dead. He could only eat liquid food through a tube, have i.v. Solutions enter his veins, an oxygen mask, being soak in