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1▶ "Murderer," a man shouted. "God help patients who get you for a nurse."
1▶ “杀人犯，”一个男人喊道，“愿上帝保佑那些摊上你当护士的病人吧。”
2▶ "What gives you the right to play God?" another one asked.
2▶ “你有什么资格代表上帝？”另一个人质问道。
3▶ It was the Phil Donahue show where the guest is a fatted calf and the audience a 200- strong flock of vultures hungering to pick at the bones. I had told them about Mac, one of my favorite cancer patients. "We resuscitated him 52 times in just one month. I refused to resuscitate him again. I simply sat there and held his hand while he died."
3▶ 那是菲尔·多纳霍的脱口秀，嘉宾如同待宰的羔羊，而观众则是 200 名饥肠辘辘的秃鹫，渴望啃食猎物的尸骨。我向他们讲述了麦克的故事，他是我最喜欢的癌症患者之一。“我们一个月内对他进行了 52 次复苏，但我最终拒绝再次对他进行复苏。我只是坐在那里，握着他的手，看着他离去。”
4▶ There wasn't time to explain that Mac was a young, witty macho cop who walked into the hospital with 32 pounds of attack equipment, looking as if he could single- handedly protect the whole city, if not the entire state. "Can't get rid of this cough," he said. Otherwise, he felt great.
4▶ 我没有时间解释，麦克曾是一位年轻、风趣且硬汉的警察，他走进医院时带着 重达32 磅的武装装备，看起来似乎可以独自保护整个城市，甚至整个州。“这咳嗽老不好，”他说。除此之外，他感觉好极了。
5▶ Before the day was over, tests confirmed that he had lung cancer. And before the year was over, I loved him, his wife, Maura, and their three kids as if they were my own. All the nurses loved him. And we all battled his disease for six months without ever giving death a thought. Six months isn't such a long time in the whole scheme of things, but it was long enough to see him lose his youth, his wit, his macho, his hair, his bowel and bladder control, his sense of taste and smell, and his ability to do the slightest thing for himself. It was long enough to watch Maura's transformation from a young woman into a haggard, beaten old lady.
5▶ 那天结束之前，检查结果证实他患有肺癌。不到一年，我就像爱自己家人一样爱上了他、他的妻子莫拉以及他们的三个孩子。所有的护士都喜欢他。我们一起与他的疾病抗争了六个月，从未想过死亡。六个月在人的一生中并不算长，但足以见证他失去青春、风趣、阳刚之气、头发、排便控制能力、味觉和嗅觉，以及做最简单事情的能力。这段时间也足以目睹莫拉从一个年轻女子变成一个憔悴、饱受打击的老妇人。
6▶ When Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton kept alive by liquid food we poured down a tube, i.v. solutions we dripped into his veins, and oxygen we piped to a mask on his face, he begged us: "Mercy ... for God's sake, please just let me go."
6▶ 当麦克消瘦成一副 60 磅的骨架，靠着我们灌入导管的流食、注入静脉的点滴和输送到面罩的氧气维持生命时，他恳求我们：“行行好吧……看在上帝的份上，求求你们让我走吧。”
7▶ The first time he stopped breathing, the nurse pushed the button that calls a “code blue” throughout the hospital and sends a team rushing to resuscitate the patient. Each time he stopped breathing, sometimes two or three times in one day, the code team came again. The doctors and technicians worked their miracles and walked away. The nurses stayed to wipe the saliva that drooled from his mouth, irrigate the big craters of bedsores that covered his hips, suction the lung fluids that threatened to drown him, clean the feces that burn his skin like lye, pour the liquid food down that tube attached his stomach, put pillows between his knees to ease the bone-on-bone pain, turn him every hour to keep the bedsores from getting worse, and change his gown and linen every two hours to keep him from being soaked in perspiration.
7▶ 第一次他停止呼吸时，护士按下了“蓝色代码”按钮，呼叫整个医院，并派出一个团队紧急抢救病人。每次他停止呼吸，有时一天两三次，代码团队都会再次赶来。医生和技术人员创造了奇迹后就离开了。护士们留下来擦去他嘴里流出的唾液，冲洗他臀部上巨大的褥疮，吸出几乎要将他淹没的肺液，清理像碱液一样灼烧他皮肤的粪便，将流食灌入连接他胃部的导管，在他的膝盖之间放上枕头以减轻骨头摩擦的疼痛，每小时给他翻身以防止褥疮恶化，每两小时更换他的病号服和床单，以免他被汗水浸透。
8▶ At night I went home and tried to scrub away the smell of decaying flesh that seemed woven into the fabric of my uniform. It was in my hair, the upholstery of my car—there was no washing it away. And every night I prayed that Mac would die, that his agonized eyes would never again plead with me to let him die.
8▶ 晚上，我回到家，试图洗掉制服上那股腐肉的味道，它似乎已经渗入到衣服的纤维里了。我的头发里、汽车的座椅上都是这种味道——根本洗不掉。每天晚上我都祈祷麦克死去，祈祷他那双痛苦的眼睛不要再恳求我让他死去。
9▶ Every morning I asked his doctor for a "no-code" order. Without that order, we had to resuscitate every patient who stopped breathing. His doctor was one of several who believe we must extend life as long as we have the means and knowledge to do it. To not do it is to be liable for negligence, at least in the eyes of many people, including some nurses. I thought about what it would be like to stand before a judge, accused of murder, if Mac stopped breathing and I didn't call a code.
9▶ 每天早上，我都请求他的医师下达“放弃抢救”指令。没有这个指令，我们就必须对每个停止呼吸的病人进行复苏。他的医生和其他几位医生一样，认为只要我们有办法和知识，就必须尽可能地延续每一位病人的生命。至少在包括一些护士在内的许多人看来，不这样做就应该承担玩忽职守的责任。我想象着，假如麦克停止呼吸而我没有呼叫代码，我将作为谋杀犯站在法官面前，那会是怎样的情景。
10▶ And after the fifty-second code, when Mac was still lucid enough to beg for death again, and Maura was crumbled in my arms again, and when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony, I wondered about a spiritual judge. Was all this misery and suffering supposed to be building character or infusing us all with the sense of humility that comes from impotence?
10▶ 在第五十二次代码之后，麦克仍然清醒到足以再次乞求死亡，莫拉再次在我怀里崩溃，当任何剂量的止痛药都无法平息他的呻吟和痛苦时，我开始思考一位精神上的审判者。难道所有这些苦难和折磨都是为了培养性格，或者让我们所有人都感受到无能为力带来的谦卑感吗？
11▶ Had we, the whole medical community, become so arrogant that we believed in the illusion of salvation through science? Had we become so self-righteous that we thought meddling in God's work was our duty, our moral imperative and legal obligation? Did we really believe that we had the right to force "life" on a suffering man who had begged for the right to die?
11▶ 我们整个医学界是否已经变得如此傲慢，以至于相信通过科学就能拯救生命的幻象？我们是否变得如此自以为是，以至于认为干预上帝的工作是我们的责任、我们的道德义务和法律责任？我们真的认为我们有权将“生命”强加给一个乞求死亡权利的痛苦之人吗？
12▶ Such questions haunted me more than ever early one morning when Maura went home to change her clothes and I was bathing Mac. He had been still for so long, I thought he at last had the blessed relief of coma. Then he opened his eyes and moaned, "Pain … . no more.…. Barbara .…. do something. … God, let me go."
12▶ 一天清晨，莫拉回家换衣服，我正在给麦克洗澡，这些问题比以往任何时候都更困扰着我。他已经静静地躺了很久，我以为他终于从昏迷中解脱了。然后他睁开眼睛，呻吟着：“疼……别再……芭芭拉……做点什么……上帝，让我走吧。”
13▶ The desperation in his eyes and voice riddled me with guilt. "I'll stop," I told him as I injected the pain medication.
13▶ 他眼神和声音中的绝望让我充满了内疚。“我会停止的，”我一边给他注射止痛药一边说。
14▶ I sat on the bed and held Mac's hands in mine. He pressed his bony fingers against my hand and muttered, "Thanks." Then there was one soft sigh and I felt his hands go cold in mine. "Mac?" I whispered, as I waited for his chest to rise and fall again.
14▶ 我坐在床上，握着麦克的手。他用骨瘦如柴的手指紧紧地握着我的手，喃喃地说：“谢谢。”然后他轻轻地叹了口气，我感觉到他的手在我的手中渐渐变冷。“麦克？”我轻声问道，等待着他的胸膛再次起伏。
15▶ A clutch of panic banded my chest, drew my finger to the code button, urged me to do something, anything …. but sit there alone with death. I kept one finger on the button, without pressing it, as a waxen pallor slowly transformed his face from person to empty shell. Nothing I've ever done in my 47 years has taken so much effort as it took not to press that code button.
15▶ 一阵恐慌袭上心头，我的手指移向了代码按钮，催促我做点什么，任何事都行……但不要独自面对死亡。我把一根手指放在按钮上，却没有按下去，蜡黄的脸色慢慢地将他的脸从一个人变成了一个空壳。在我 47 年的人生中，从来没有做过任何一件事比不按下那个代码按钮更费力。
16▶ Eventually, when I was sure as I could be that the code team would fail to bring him back, I entered the legal twilight zone and pushed the button. The team tried. And while they were trying, Maura walked into the room and shrieked, "No ... don't let them do this to him .…. for God's sake... please, no more."
16▶ 最终，当我确信代码团队无法将他救活时，我进入了一个法律的灰色地带，按下了按钮。团队进行了尝试。当他们尝试时，莫拉走进房间尖叫道：“不……不要让他们对他这样做……看在上帝的份上……求求你们，不要再这样了。”
17▶ Cradling her in my arms was like cradling myself, Mac, and all those patients and nurses who had been in this place before, who do the best they can in a death-denying society.
17▶ 把她抱在怀里，就像抱着我自己、麦克，以及所有曾经处于这种境地的病人和护士，他们在否认死亡的社会中尽了最大的努力。
18▶ So a TV audience accused me of murder. Perhaps I am guilty. If a doctor had written a no- code order, which is the only legal alternative, would he have felt any less guilty? Until there is legislation making it a criminal act to code a patient who has requested the right to die, we will all of us risk the same fate as Mac. For whatever reason, we developed the means to prolong life, and now we are forced to use it. We do not have the right to die.
18▶ 于是，电视观众指责我谋杀。也许我有罪。如果医生写下了放弃抢救的指令，这是唯一的合法选择，他是否会感到不那么内疚呢？在立法将对已要求死亡权利的患者进行代码抢救定为犯罪行为之前，我们所有人都将面临与麦克相同的命运。无论出于何种原因，我们开发了延长生命的手段，现在我们却被迫使用它。我们没有权利去死。
Summary
This article tells the story of a nurse named Barbara who faced a moral dilemma while caring for a terminally ill cancer patient named Mac. Mac suffered immensely and repeatedly begged to be allowed to die, but the medical team was legally obligated to resuscitate him every time he stopped breathing. After 52 resuscitations, Barbara made the difficult decision to let Mac die peacefully by not calling a "code blue" when he stopped breathing for the last time. This decision led to her being accused of murder on a television show. The article raises questions about the ethics of prolonging life at all costs and the right to die with dignity.
本文讲述了一位名叫芭芭拉的护士在照顾一位名叫麦克的绝症癌症患者时面临道德困境的故事。麦克遭受了巨大的痛苦，并多次恳求允许他死去，但医疗团队有法律义务在他每次停止呼吸时对他进行复苏。在 52 次复苏后，芭芭拉做出了艰难的决定，在麦克最后一次停止呼吸时没有呼叫“蓝色代码”，让他平静地死去。这一决定导致她在电视节目中被指控谋杀。这篇文章提出了关于不惜一切代价延长生命的伦理问题以及有尊严地死亡的权利。
Analysis
"It was the Phil Donahue show where the guest is a fatted calf and the audience a 200-strong flock of vultures hungering to pick at the bones."
- 超长句与复杂句、隐喻表达: 这句话是一个复合句，包含一个主句 "It was the Phil Donahue show" 和一个由 where 引导的定语从句。定语从句中使用了两个隐喻，将嘉宾比作“待宰的肥牛犊 (fatted calf)”，将观众比作“200 只饥饿的秃鹫 (a 200-strong flock of vultures hungering to pick at the bones)”。
- 详尽解释: "fatted calf" 源自《圣经》中浪子回头的故事，通常指为了庆祝或特殊场合而宰杀的精心喂养的牛犊，这里用来比喻嘉宾是节目的“牺牲品”。"vultures" 是秃鹫，以腐肉为食，这里用来比喻观众渴望从嘉宾的痛苦或争议中获取谈资和乐趣。“pick at the bones” 形象地描绘了观众对嘉宾的“攻击”和“消费”。整句话生动地揭示了电视节目为了收视率而将嘉宾置于被攻击和审判的境地的残酷现实，以及观众的冷漠和猎奇心理。
"There wasn't time to explain that Mac was a young, witty macho cop who walked into the hospital with 32 pounds of attack equipment, looking as if he could single-handedly protect the whole city, if not the entire state."
- 多层修饰、超长句: 这句话是一个包含 that 引导的宾语从句的复合句，宾语从句中又包含一个 who 引导的定语从句修饰 "cop"。此外，句子中还使用了 "looking as if" 引导的状语从句。
- 详尽解释: "young, witty macho cop" 描述了 Mac 的性格和职业特征，"32 pounds of attack equipment" 指的是警察的装备，突出了 Mac 的强壮和威武。"looking as if he could single-handedly protect the whole city, if not the entire state" 是一个夸张的说法，用来形容 Mac 给人的第一印象是如此强大，似乎可以独自保护整个城市甚至整个州。这句话通过层层递进的修饰，展现了 Mac 最初的健康和强壮形象，与后文的虚弱形成鲜明对比。
"When Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton kept alive by liquid food we poured down a tube, i.v. solutions we dripped into his veins, and oxygen we piped to a mask on his face, he begged us: 'Mercy ... for God's sake, please just let me go.'"
- 超长句、多层修饰、省略句: 这句话是一个包含 when 引导的时间状语从句的复合句。状语从句中使用了三个并列的定语从句来修饰 "skeleton"，并且省略了关系代词 "that/which"。
- 详尽解释: "wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton" 描述了 Mac 病情恶化后的极度消瘦状态。"kept alive by liquid food we poured down a tube, i.v. solutions we dripped into his veins, and oxygen we piped to a mask on his face" 这三个并列的定语从句详细描述了维持 Mac 生命的各种医疗手段，突出了他的痛苦和无助。"he begged us: 'Mercy ... for God's sake, please just let me go.'" 是 Mac 的直接引语，表达了他强烈的求死愿望。"for God's sake" 是一个习语，表示“看在上帝的份上”，加强了语气。这句话通过对 Mac 身体状况和求死愿望的描写，展现了他在生命最后阶段的极度痛苦和绝望。
"The doctors and technicians worked their miracles and walked away. The nurses stayed to wipe the saliva that drooled from his mouth, irrigate the big craters of bedsores that covered his hips, suction the lung fluids that threatened to drown him, clean the feces that burn his skin like lye, pour the liquid food down that tube attached his stomach, put pillows between his knees to ease the bone-on-bone pain, turn him every hour to keep the bedsores from getting worse, and change his gown and linen every two hours to keep him from being soaked in perspiration."
- 超长句、多层修饰、并列结构、隐喻表达: 这句话是一个包含多个并列谓语的超长句。其中，"The nurses stayed" 之后的部分列举了护士们需要做的各种护理工作，使用了多个并列的不定式短语，并且在不定式短语中又嵌套了 that 引导的定语从句。此外，句子中还使用了 "big craters of bedsores" 和 "burn his skin like lye" 等隐喻表达。
- 详尽解释: "The doctors and technicians worked their miracles and walked away" 描述了医生和技术人员完成技术操作后离开的情景，与下文护士的持续护理形成对比。"The nurses stayed to..." 之后的部分详细列举了护士们需要做的各种繁琐的护理工作，包括擦拭唾液、冲洗褥疮、吸痰、清洁粪便、灌注流食、垫枕头、翻身、更换衣物和床单等。"big craters of bedsores" 将褥疮比喻成巨大的坑洞，形象地描绘了褥疮的严重程度。"burn his skin like lye" 将粪便对皮肤的刺激比作碱液的灼烧，突出了 Mac 的痛苦。这句话通过对护士工作的详细描写，展现了她们的辛勤付出和 Mac 所遭受的巨大痛苦。
"And after the fifty-second code, when Mac was still lucid enough to beg for death again, and Maura was crumbled in my arms again, and when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony, I wondered about a spiritual judge."
- 超长句、并列结构、抽象表达: 这句话是一个包含 after 引导的时间状语从句的复合句。状语从句中又包含了两个并列的 when 引导的时间状语从句。此外，句子中使用了 "crumbled in my arms" 和 "spiritual judge" 等抽象表达。
- 详尽解释: "after the fifty-second code" 指的是第 52 次复苏后。"when Mac was still lucid enough to beg for death again" 描述了 Mac 仍然清醒并再次恳求死亡的情景。"Maura was crumbled in my arms again" 形象地描绘了 Maura 精神崩溃、身体虚弱地倒在芭芭拉怀里的情景，"crumbled" 一词生动地表现了 Maura 的绝望和无助。"when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony" 描述了即使使用大量的止痛药也无法减轻 Mac 的痛苦。"I wondered about a spiritual judge" 是芭芭拉内心的思考，她在思考是否存在一个超越世俗法律的精神审判者，来评判他们的行为是否符合道德和伦理。这句话通过对 Mac 和 Maura 的描写，以及芭芭拉的内心思考，展现了在面对生死抉择时的复杂情感和道德困境。
"Eventually, when I was sure as I could be that the code team would fail to bring him back, I entered the legal twilight zone and pushed the button."
- 习惯用语、隐喻表达: 这句话中使用了 "as sure as I could be" 和 "legal twilight zone" 等习惯用语和隐喻表达。
- 详尽解释: "as sure as I could be" 是一个习语，意思是“尽可能地确定”。"legal twilight zone" 是一个隐喻，将芭芭拉当时所处的法律困境比作“法律的暮光区”，即一个法律界限模糊、是非难辨的地带。芭芭拉明知按下按钮也救不活Mac，但她不得不按下按钮，因为这是法律的要求。这句话通过使用“legal twilight zone”这个隐喻，生动地表现了芭芭拉在法律和道德之间的艰难抉择，以及她所面临的法律风险。