Essay on Critique of Barbara Huttman’s A Crime of Compassion

Critique of Barbara Huttman’s â€Å"A Crime of Compassion† Barbara Huttman’s â€Å"A Crime of Compassion† has many warrants yet the thesis is not qualified. This is a story that explains the struggles of being a nurse and having to make split-second decisions, whether they are right or wrong. Barbara was a nurse who was taking care of a cancer patient named Mac. Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton (95). When he walked into the hospital, he was a macho police officer who believed he could single-handedly protect the whole city (95). His condition worsened every day until it got so bad that he had to be resuscitated two or three times a day. Barbara eventually gave into his wishes to be let go. Do you believe we should have the right to†¦show more content†¦I am sure everybody has seen a TV show or heard about how they eventually took the accident victim or terminally ill patient off the machines that kept them alive. In these stories, the person can no longer live on their own, and life is no longer worth living. â€Å"A Crime of Compassion† shows how a person should have the right to die if he or she wants to. She proved that she values the quality of life of her patients. â€Å"The nurses stayed to wipe the saliva that drooled from his mouth, irrigate the big craters of bedsores that covered his hips, suction the fluid that threatened to drown him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (95). It is because of her values she chose not to push the code button that would warn the doctors and technicians to rush in and resuscitate him once again. She also no longer wanted to see him struggle to survive. It also shows how patient care is also a very important value, but it should be that way in any hospital. This patient care tended to be better than most by reviving a person over fifty times. That is a hard thing to do in any medical facility. â€Å"When Mac had wasted away to a 60- pound skeleton kept alive by liquid food we poured down a tube, IV solutions we dripped into his veins, and oxygen we piped into a mask on his face, he begged us: â€Å"Mercy†¦for God’s sake, please just let me go† (95). This quote from the book shows how bad his life was when he was in the hospital. I