The patient made his wishes known that, in this state, he wouldn’t want to be kept alive artificially. His spouse is trying to ignore his wishes.
Administering food and water is not keeping someone alive artificially.
Also, Kasem has been married for more than thirty years. His wife should be in charge of her husband’s welfare. That’s not just common sense — it’s the law. And she’s got a power of attorney he signed in 2011. What basis is there for overriding THOSE wishes of her husband?
The judge is discriminating against Jean Kasem because she’s not a cool, media savvy young stepdaughter in a conservative business suit. She’s an old lady with dyed blond hair. There’s not a shred of evidence she’s incompetent, or not acting in her husband’s best interests. Oh, the stepdaughter is married to a doctor? Then she indubitably knows what’s best for her father, with whom she’s been feuding for years. Perfectly good reason to ignore the law and put her in charge!
And absent a will that states otherwise, Jean Kasem can and should get everything, kids. The house she put up for sale in the Holmby Hills in 2013 for $42 million? That’s hers. That’s marital property. When the husband dies, the wife gets everything. That’s how it works. She may or may not make provision for his children in her own will. Probably not, because they’re making her life hell now.
And people who stand to profit (or think they might, like these entitled moneygrubbing kids) should have no part in the decision to kill someone in the hospital.