14. Reading Skills Comprehension: MANBHARI

MANBHARI

1. Manbhari (85) lay still on her bed wearing a smile of eternal peace, probably she had a smooth ride …. “she was lucky,” said her husband sitting at her bedside. I thought: “Can the benefit of such a smooth ride be extended to countless others who are languishing in hospitals with terminal ailments, burdening the already stretched healthcare system or dumped in a corner of the house in a state of total neglect, with a lot of physical and mental pain to bear? Can anybody offer an end on the demand of the sufferer when the possibility of a cure has been extinguished?”

2. Neither the law nor medical ethics require that ‘every possible damn thing be done’ to keep a person alive when the medical procedures and aids only add to his torture. It would also be cruel and inhumane to prolong his misery and cause financial ruin to the family. Some proponents share the view that modern medicine keeps human beings alive for much longer than their natural longevity would permit. There comes a time when continued attempts to cure are not compassionate, wise or medically sound. There is no point forcing people to stay alive ‘hooked up’ to machines, artificial feeding and hydration through a nasogastric tube and excretory functions regulated by a catheter and by enemas since the existence is vegetative.

3. Many patients need 24-hour care for several months with no prospects of cure. When the undisputed consensus of eminent medical opinion is that there is no prospect whatsoever that a patient would ever make a recovery from his present condition, but that there is every likelihood that he will maintain his present state of vegetative existence for a long time, provided that painful interventions which he is now receiving were continued, what could be the objectives at that stage? Proponents of euthanasia emphasise that when a person faces unbearable pain or disability and the dignity in his/her life is lost, it would be noble that the state grants him/her the right to choose to have death hastened.

4. It is debatable whether ethics should dictate that death is brought about quickly by administering a lethal drug rather than a prolonged torture of stopping artificial feeding and other treatment. Legalised euthanasia raises the potential for a situation in which families and society could find themselves better-off financially if a seriously ill or disabled person ‘chooses’ to die rather than receive long-term care. In India’s context, the love and care to the ageing and ailing are missing, the end of the older family member seems to bring a sense of great relief to all concerned.

5. Many people feel guilty for not choosing death when it is inevitable. Financial considerations add to the concerns about ‘being a burden’. However, doctors need to start talking to patients and their families about the futility of treatments that only prolong death.

Word-Meanings

Para 1. 1. Eternal (adjective): never changing and long lasting 2. Languishing (verb): to lose vigour and vitality and to grow weak 3. Terminal ailments (noun): diseases that cannot be cured 4. Dumped (verb): thrown down 5. Extinguished (verb): ended 6. stretched (adjective): strained

Para 2. 1. Ethics (noun): rules of conduct 2. Torture (noun): agony 3. Prolong (verb): lengthen 4. Proponents (noun): people who argue in favour of something 5. Attempts (noun): efforts 6. Compassionate (adjective): merciful 7. The catheter (noun): a small pipe used to draw off urine from the bladder 8. Vegetative (adjective): alive but without brain activity 9. Longevity (noun): length or duration of life 10. Enemas (noun): the injection of a fluid into the rectum to cause a bowel movement 11. Nasogastric (adjective): involving the nose and the stomach

Para 3. 1. Prospects (noun): expectations 2. Consensus (noun): Unanimity 3. Objectives (noun): aims 4. Euthanasia (noun): mercy killing 5. Undisputed (adjective): undoubted or unquestioned 6. Eminent (adjective): very important and famous 7. Likelihood (noun): probability 8. Interventions (noun): medical treatment 9. Hastened (verb): to hurry

Para 4. 1. Debatable (adjective): liable to be disputed 2. Lethal (adjective): deadly 3. Potential (noun): possibility 4. Better-off (adjective): prosperous 5. Ailing (adjective): unwell, sickly 6. Administering (verb): injecting

Para 5. 1. Inevitable (adjective): bound to happen 2. Futility (noun): uselessness

Questions:

1. Choose the correct option:

(a) Euthanasia made legal will be ……………

(i) ethically wrong (ii) inhuman

(iii) good for patients leading a vegetative existence (iv) good for relations

(b) What happens in a vegetative state?

(i) Heart stops (ii) Eyes get blinded

(iii) Liver fails (iv) Brain performs no activity

(c) What could be cruel and inhuman for a patient?

(i) To not care (ii) To hook him up to machines

(iii) To prolong his suffering (iv) To solace