Who Has the Right to a Respirator, Who Can Turn It Off?

Earlier this week the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare advised that a young woman who is paralysed has the right to decide to terminate her treatment. According to new Swedish medical guidelines, doctors must switch off life-support on a patient's request--even if the act results in death.

Finnish officials point out that patients aren't being forced into treatment in Finland either.

While the euthanasia debate continues, a main issue may not be ending care--but having access to it.

The Right to Care

Liisa Rautanen, chair of the Finnish Neuromuscular Disorders Association, says every person should have the right to control their own life. Rautanen, who herself relies on a respirator when sleeping, says no one should feel forced into ending their life because of poor care. According to Rautanen, this may be the case for frustrated patients in Finland who don't get the basic help they need. This includes getting in and out of bed and using the bathroom.

"Treatment can be terminated when it's no longer effective. It's also a question of resources that can be used to benefit someone else," says Risto Ihalainen of the Finnish Medical Association

Rautanen says it's equally important that patient rights are respected among those fighting to stay alive. She points to cases where patients have died because they weren't provided with a respirator, as these machines come at a hefty cost to society. People on home respirators also require an assistant.

"I know people who died of long-term pneumonia when their respirators were taken away," Rautanen says.

In Finland pulmonologists decide whether to place patients on respirators, making these physicians the judges of life and death.