Extreme right and extreme left are coming together over an example of Bush's legacy of mercy killings in Texas. Texas is the only state where a committee in a hospital, regardless of family wishes, decides if they want to keep paying to keep someone alive.
In the latest case, a 54-year-old woman went in for a heart operation and developed bed sores and complications. The hospital has decided to to pull the plug on her even with no loss of mental functioning.
Andrea, when she is not medicated into unconsciousness (and even when she is, and the medication has worn off to some degree) is aware and cognizant. She has suffered no brain damage to the parts of her brain responsible for thought and reason, or speech. She has only suffered loss of some motor control. The reason that the physician gave to medicate her so much is that she is suffering from intractable pain in the sacral region (in other words, she has a bedsore that causes her pain).An update here and here as it has united Christians and non-Christians on both the left and right.
...Finally making the mainstream media. And a Chronicle blog.
It was a 1999 state law that gave hospitals the authority to remove patients from life support.
The only requirement is that the hospital must give a family 10 days notice to find another facility that would care for their loved one.
Andrea Clark’s family is trying to that, but if they are unsuccessful, Clark will be taken off life support April 30.
Tags: Texas, Houston, St. Lukes, , Right to Life, mercy killing, hospitals, health insurance, ethics
No comments:
Post a Comment