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I am a retired nurse. Emilio Gonzales' grieving mother's behavior is totally understandable. The hijacking of our legal system by her attorney to delay the inevitable is not.
The child is dead and being maintained in a life-like state by machines that should be available for a child who could be saved. The scarce resource of skilled nursing care is unavailable to a child who could benefit, and the number of nurses who leave intensive care nursing because of their grief in causing pain to a child like Emilio should be considered.
Hospital ethics committees came into being to deal with such situations, triggered by the suit by the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan to remove her from life support in 1975. We need to recognize that ethics committees do not make their decisions lightly and we need to allow them to go forward peacefully, not be second-guessed by some attorney.
HELEN CARVELL
Austin
Baby Emilio, postage rate and marriage lessons COMMENTS FROM READERS
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Looks like the bishop there has done more than take the "other " side. He has sought to counsel Emilio's mother who has so far shunned the offer. May she be very wary...
The bishop noted that some have compared Emilio's situation to that of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who became the center of a highly publicized debate on end-of-life issues and who died in March 2005 after a court ordered her feeding tube be removed.
But he said the two cases "are very different; in the Schiavo case ordinary means – food and water – were withdrawn, which caused her death."
Bishop Aymond said he has offered to meet with Catarina Gonzales, a 23-year-old Catholic from Lockhart, "to offer my support and to explain the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding end-of-life issues." As of late April 16, Gonzales had not responded to the offer, said Helen Osman, diocesan spokeswoman.
Bishop weighs in on debate over care of dying Texas boy
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The writer is dead and being maintained in a life-like state by food and water that should be saved for someone with a heart and soul.