Thanks, Alberta’s Child for saying what I have been thinking.
On one hand, we don’t want “death panels”, but on the other, we cannot have the taxpayers continually charged for futile treatment. This case is understandably sympathetic, but there are also too many people out there that won’t let nature take its (sometimes) sad course, and insist that the hospital/nursing home spend vast amounts of (not their) money on artificial life-prolonging care.
Thanks. This is an important distinction between the “Baby Joseph” case and the Terri Schaivo case in Florida a few years ago. In the Schaivo case, the patient (Terri) was able to breathe on her own and only needed palliative care and food/hydration. Once you introduce the need for artificial breathing support in a medical situation where there is no anticipation of recovery, you’re simply delaying the inevitable course of a natural death.