Andrea Clark was very sick but NOT brain dead and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital had decided against her and her families wishes to pull the plug on her. This was an example of Bush's "futile care" law in Texas. Thanks to the internet and activists from both the left and right that decision was reversed. Sadly her medical conditions got the best of her.
The Houston Chronicle has the story.
The woman at the center of a battle over Texas' futile care law died Sunday, five days after St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital decided to keep treating her terminal illness.RightMom has an email from one of her family members:
We wish so much that we could have spent more time at our sister's side, when she was living and fighting for her life, rather than having to visit our attorney's office, give interviews to radio and television stations to let the public know of the atrocity about to befall Andrea, and literally stand outside the hospital and beg them not to kill our sister. In attempting to deprive Andrea of the most basic of her human rights "life" St. Luke's Hospital managed to deprive her family and her of that which is most dear to us all, when we are faced with the death of a loved one: a proper goodbye.Her struggle against death has brought greater awareness of what passes for "ethics" in Texas hospitals and the need for changes in the law and inspired political opponents to work together.
How, in the name of God, anyone can call putting someone to death when they are at their most helpless and begging for their lives "ethical" we cannot imagine.
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