Aimee Copeland & The Case for Approaching Taboo Medical Ethics Topics

This past week the case of Aimee Copeland has appeared in the media.  Aimee is a 24 year old graduate student in the University of West Georgia's psychology department.  On May 1st,  she was out with friends kayaking down a river in Carroll County, GA, and had the opportunity to play on a homemade zip line.  Accounts vary, but it seems that the zip line might have snapped and that Aimee fell onto rocks on or near the river.  She was heavily bruised, and was taken to the hospital.  She got staples in her legs and some meds, and was sent home.  Over the next days she was in and out of the hospital and doctors offices.  It was on May 4th, according to the psychology student site of her department, that she was finally diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.  Her left leg was amputated, she went into cardiac arrest, and she was flown to the burn center at the Doctor's Hospital in Augusta, GA.  For more info, see this article.

Aimee is on full life support.  The blood vessels in her finger and feet have died and they are scheduled for amputation once the doctors determine her stable enough to handle the surgery.  Her palms appear to also be dead, but there is some talk that if the surgery can happen soon enough, that there is a chance of them coming back to life and surviving.

My concern is about the ethics of keeping someone alive when their future quality of life is inevitably low.

This situation raised questions for me that I was not seeing addressed in her father's posts, on the student website page with her updates, and in the media.  Therefore, I turned to one of my MD friends, the most compassionate medical doctor that I know, who I will refer to as Dr. X, to hear an insider's view on the situation.  What he shared with me was illuminating enough to cause me to start this website, and to argue the case that, in his words, "just because we can, doesn't mean we should."

I hope this site can be used as a forum to help understand these medical ethic issues more thoroughly, and to help each of us to understand how significant this is in our lives, and in the lives of others.  I see much for myself to learn in this inquiry, and in advance thank all of you who help to educate and inform me on the topic.

I send heart-felt wishes for everything good to Aimee and her family, and apologize in advance if this discussion causes them any pain.  This discussion is really not about Aimee.  Aimee's situation was simply the catalyst for a really serious discussion that needs to take place.