Posted on 06/01/2006 7:20:27 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
DALLAS A mother fighting to keep her baby on life support, despite a hospital's determination that her efforts would be futile, will get two more weeks to find a facility that will take the 10-month-old. A judge had been set to decide tomorrow whether to grant a temporary injunction to stop Children's Medical Center in Dallas from removing Daniel Wayne Cullen the Second from life support. But attorneys for the boy's mother and the hospital agreed yesterday to extend a temporary restraining order for another two weeks.
Attorney Brian Potts, who represents the boy's mother, Dixie Belcher, said he plans to submit the agreement to a judge today.
The baby has had breathing problems since his premature birth and was hospitalized after suffering from a lack of oxygen when he pulled out a breathing tube. He remains on a ventilator.
(Excerpt) Read more at kten.com ...
Terri June Dailies
8mm
Let it be an illegal's child and you can bet the plug would never be pulled.
"Something deep down inside is telling me not to unplug my 10-month-old," said Dixie Belcher, Daniel's mother. "I know it's going to take him quite a while to pull out of this, but I know he's my little fighter, and he's got to pull through. He's got to pull through."
Part of the reason Ms. Belcher cannot bring herself to unplug her son is that she has been here before.
Fourteen years ago in a hospital room at Children's Medical Center, she says, she struggled with another doctor's recommendation to remove life support from her 5-month-daughter, Jamie, who also suffered breathing problems.
Mom fighting ruling to end infant's life support Exclusive: 'He's got to pull through'
8mm
I don't understand. If the mother is willing to pay for continued life support, though futile, why won't the hospital agree?
It is more like a futile care case as in the case of Andrea Clark and Mrs. Vo. But like with Terri, it is others making the decision to euthanize someone regardless of the wishes of close relatives.
Because further care would be futile. Hospitals are under no obligation to continue palliative care when there is no hope for recovery.
In Catholic theology, this child, on a ventilator, is receiving extraordinary means of life support, and there is no moral obligation to extend extraordinary means of care.
If the child could breathe on his own, but with a feeding tube, the hospital would be in a different situation, though it would still likely ask the mother to find a long-term care facility for him.
It is totally unlike any of those cases. If the ventilator was removed, the child would die. Even the Catholic Church would not say there is a moral obligation to extend this child's life.
It's not. There is a ventilator involved here, not just a feeding tube.
This law predated Terry, it was signed into law by Gov. George W. Bush as I recall.
There are two sides to this question. The hospital has determined the person to already be deceased. (I assume)
The mother, naturally and understandably, does not.
Therefore, the term "euthanize" is already preloaded.
The other question is the one about who is to pay for the continued "life" support. Some think the hospital has the responsibility to continue to pay, for as long as the relatives desire. I am not one of them.
I agree, that is the main difference.
I hate to see cases like this, but this situation has one enormous difference from the Schiavo case in that Schiavo was capable of breathing on her own, where this child apparently is not.
Yes, that is right. I think it was meant to stop futile medications like maybe antibiotics are doing no more good, but the ethicists have redefined it to rule on "futile life". We just went through all this with Andrea Clark and Mrs. Vo who is still alive.
100% correct, my friend.
It is not enormous. Pulling feeding and water is similar. It kills by dehydration, not a fun way to go, and certainly not permitted for pets.
So that makes it ok for the staff to snuff the kid, right. You remember I am a Catholic, too, a traditional at that. Aren't you supposed to be a deacon or somthing?
The Pope who died just after Terri thought snuffing people like that was bad. Don't you?
Andrea Clark died within days of the Houston hospital reconsidering its decision to evict her, thus proving that the original "futile care" decision was the correct one.
Will you acknowledge that this case is distinctly different from the two you mention above? A ventilator is REQUIRED for this child to breathe.
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