Not a pacifist. Would do someone the favor. Hope someone would do it for me if it came to that.
There are several key points in your hypothetical. Prominently being the questionable competence of the resident doctor. That would leave me to make my own assessment as to the severity of the injuries. So unless I was certain on my own that the damage was terminal before any external help would arrive, no, I wouldn’t kill anyone. Loved one or otherwise.
To paraphrase, it would be a permanent solution to what might have been a temporary problem. A period of incredible pain can be gotten over. Death, not so much.
re: Walking Dead. Unless the wounds were massive and incredibly painful. ie. stomach chewed out, we’ll wait for a natural discorporation and then put a bullet/knife in the skull of a corpse.
I just have a hard time with using a painful method of causing death (and suffocation is pretty painful, too) to end suffering. And, yes, there’s no way I would be able to believe the doctor, even if I logically knew they were right. There are a bunch of stages of grief to go through, and I won’t be to acceptance in two hours. And I know from experience that I go through all of them.
The idea of consent hadn’t crossed my mind, as I assumed, for the sake of the hypothetical, my loved one and I had already discussed this and she said it was okay. In real life, no one I know would be okay with that, so this hypothetical can’t happen.
I firmly believe that people should have the right to end their lives when and where they choose. This presumes the willful consent of the patient.
Since the victim in this case is incoherent and cannot express her wishes, I don’t think I could bring myself to do it to her. I might help her end her own life, if that’s what she wanted, but without being able to communicate her wishes that I don’t think I could.