Posted on 02/17/2005 5:36:43 PM PST by xzins
Disability activists call for a moratorium on the starvation and dehydration of people with disabilities. New research indicates many people being killed this way in hospitals may be alert and conscious, but unable to respond.
(PRWEB) February 16, 2005 -- How much more evidence do we need? Disability Activists Call for Moratorium on Starvation and Dehydration. Disability activists have called for a nationwide moratorium on the dehydration and starvation of people alleged to be in “persistent vegetative state.” This would apply to individuals who do not have an advance directive or durable power of attorney.
The call for a moratorium is a reaction to the newly-published report indicating high levels of brain activity in people thought to be in “minimally conscious state (MCS).” The study, published in the February issue of Neurology, discovered evidence that these individuals may hear and understand much of what is going on around them, but are unable to respond.
The study drew a distinction between MCS and Persistent Vegetative State (PVS), but the distinction is not a reliable one. In a New York Times article, Dr. Joseph Fins mentioned research indicating a 30% misdiagnosis rate of PVS, indicating that nearly a third of persons diagnosed in PVS are actually in “minimally conscious state.” Fins is chief of the medical ethics division of New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.
With the exception of oblique references to Terri Schiavo, current coverage of the study and its implications dance around the most important issues regarding this study. Namely, thousands of people around this country with labels of both MCS and PVS are being starved and dehydrated, often without an advance directive indicating their wishes, or a durable power of attorney appointing a substitute decision-maker they chose for themselves.
“Given the current research regarding brain activity and misdiagnosis, it’s a virtual certainty that countless people have been helpless to prevent their own deaths through starvation and dehydration,” says Stephen Drake, research analyst for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group opposed to legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. “There’s an analogy to DNA evidence and the death penalty. Here in Illinois, the staggering numbers of innocent and wrongly convicted people on Death Row resulted in a moratorium on the death penalty. Whether you agreed with the death penalty or not, everyone was forced to find ways to make sure no innocent person ended up on Death Row again. The same amount of concern should apply to medically induced deaths, in which the numbers far exceed the number of convicted people executed each year.”
Not Dead Yet is calling for a moratorium on the withholding of feeding tubes from people in PVS and MCS until they can be tested under the same protocol used on individuals in the Neurology study. State-of-the-art testing for cognitive activity should be a minimum standard to be applied when someone’s death is proposed. Just as the availability of DNA testing and competent counsel are accepted as essential to people being tried in capital cases, the new technical tools to evaluate cognitive activity and potential should be applied to individuals before feeding tubes are withdrawn. Even with this technology, there will probably still be mistakes. But at least it will be the first step in reducing the number of conscious people dying from hunger and thirst in hospitals and nursing homes, aware of every minute and unable to cry out that they are awake.
Not Dead Yet 7521 Madison St. Forest Park, IL 60130 708-209-1500 http://www.notdeadyet.org
It's unbelievable that our society treats their loved ones with less care than their pets.
People must speak out against starvation and dehydration.
poing
"poing" Too cute.
Anyway, this is good, meaty information that can be relayed to those in Florida's house and senate. What Not Dead Yet is calling for is the most reasonable of moratoriums until and unless we know just a bit more about those the state now considers 'hopeless'.
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
LOL
I "poing" a lot, but usually correct it before posting, I think I'll keep it, it goes with my blonde perfectly!
That is a great idea to send it to our FL legislators!
Ohioan from Ohio here. :>)
Where's the master email list for all national legislators? I've seen it posted every now and then. Anyone know?
The first thing I thought of was those thin-skinned, red rubber balls we used to play four-square with. Any child of the 60s knows this well. If you smacked it with your palm, it would go "poing". If you backhanded it, it would go "kaboingoingoing". So, I had a laugh with that.
Okay, sorry for the temporary distraction. Great report. Brilliant post and thank you for getting this info out there. Truly, it needs to be circulated high and wide.
I don't know who has that list. It'd be a good one to post though.
On a side note, I have been asked before if I was being punished for something. ;-)
I got a brother-in-law Ohio up in the panhandle of your great state. Very red part of a red state.
They already do this. It's called social security disability.
????
This sounds like a worthwhile organization.
Meanwhile, I need to make an appointment to make an advance directive. Terri's predicament makes it very clear how necessary this is.
(I wonder: doesn't the girlfriend of Terri's HINO [husband in name only] worry just a little about her fate if she goes ahead and marries him?)
if you want a man
who'll take the ring off of his hand
and turn around and say he'll be true
He deserves you.
(Which was a very subtle way of saying "You dumb A$_; What are you thinking!")
Not Dead Yet - what a great organization. May the Lord be with them in their work.
Please be very careful as you go about the process of filing an advance directive. They are not the panacea that the media is making them out to be.
sounds like Holland
bump for further discussion
bump for the morning
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