Would you let algorithm help you decide if a loved one in coma should die?

[Sherwood_Archer]

Just saw that question in reddit and thought if I would let a family person or SO die based on data presented by a machine. I most probably would anyway if I feel in my guts that there really is no hope left and the decent thing to do would be to pull the plug.
The algorithm is supposed to be 90% correct. But would you trust that?

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[UconBit]

Heck, we put our pets to sleep so that they could die with dignity. Why won't we do the same for the people we love? If someone I love is already in a coma and data generated by an AI that is supposed to be accurate 90% of the time says there is no chance that he/she would wake up from coma, then I'd just tell the doctors to pull the plug already. Hard to do but we just have to accept it.
On the positive side, if a loved one is in coma for like a week or so and AI says that there is still a huge chance of him/her waking up then I will wait.

[allahabadi]

NO

NEVER


I dunno much about the algo; but it wud be my decision if it is up to me; not to some machine algo.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Would you let algorithm help you decide if a loved one in coma should die?

Except that's not what the article states at all.

"Kaufmann agrees — a computer system’s assessment should only matter if it determines that a coma patient shows promise after human doctors deemed it a lost cause — not the other way round."

In other words, if doctors say there is no chance of recovery, and the computer says there is, treatment will continue. If doctors say there is a chance of recovery, and the computer says there isn't, treatment will also continue. It's only being used as a tool to confirm decision making when both doctors and machine agree there is no chance of recovery.

Also, this is largely hypothetical. It's based on functional MRI. Many centres don't offer functional MRI, so those patients are out. Even in the centres that do, there are a huge number of reasons you can't MRI patient because of metalwork, implants, etc, so those patients are out too. And even in the patients that can have an MRI, transferring an ICU patient to the MRI is difficult and risky - if doctors were going to continue treatment anyway, there would be no benefit to exposing the patient to the risk.

[SnowAugustine]

I think I've also read this article or one that is similar to it. Something like the doctor said there was no chance but AI said there was and in the end it was the AI that was correct. That doesn't sound so bad at all. This could actually save lives.