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
ping to self for later pingout.
Thanks for the ping!
Goodnight prayer for Terri!
Millions of innocents have already been murdered in cruel and horrible fashions just because they came to life at an "inappropriate" time. The Shiavo thing just makes me want to wretch. God help any of us who, for whatever reason end up in a conscious, but unable to vocalize, state of being.
Thanks for the warning. I will be seeing a lawyer about it, and I've been thinking about it a lot. I know all the ways a lawyer can twist what seems to be a clear statement into something not even resembling its obvious meaning. I do have the advantage that my husband is NOT a Michael Schiavo, so I'm fairly certain that if I became unable to talk, he wouldn't be trying to get legal permission to murder me!
A lawyer is good, but a doctor or someone in the medical field will also be important to consult. The terms they use will have medical and legal meanings. For instance, attending physician may not mean only your doctor. It can refer to the emergency room doc. There's loads of ways things need to be assessed before you sign. Just keep your eyes wide open.
Obviously little is known about the power of judges, in Florida they even make the honorable judiciary look like dishonest jerks. Can you imagine being able to take a campaign contribution from an attorney in a high profile case and not expect the "Globe" to think your dishonest and because you have muddied and wallowed in dirt, you gotta know its going to rub off on your peers. Well it was legal, but in my book totally unethical and if one can, why not all of them. I'm not so sure I wouldn't go out of state to write a living will.
They have my vote on a moratorium! Terri has no rights, but my dog has them a plenty, even the fish. If I starve or dehydrate any of them it is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and three years in jail. Let us study all of the ramifications but let us never condone starvation and dehydration of any living creature, man or beast. That is the most horrible of deaths. Michael chooses it for Terri because her old man wanted her to receive treatment, now he is so vengeful he can't see that his actions will impact his children 20 years from now and probably a lot sooner.
I do have an advantage in that I am a doctorate level biochemist and medical terms aren't that much of a mystery to me; I have much more concern about lawyers and their ability to twist language and make even simple words mean something quite different depending on the lawyer's intent. I will be quite careful!
That's good to hear! Good luck with that!
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