And this is where the courts have overstepped their boundaries, bigtime. They have made choices that I think actually erode the rights of the patients in quite a few instances.
The one guy I posted about on the other thread, he wrote down his sister-in-law for his next of kin, then when it came time for the feeding tube decision, the courts ignored that and said his wife had the first right to decide for him.
But you have to think the man goes into the hospital to have surgery and the unthinkable happens, he codes on the table. Now if he trusts his wife, why did he write down his sister-in-law when he entered the hospital?
And it was, I think, his sister-in-law who fought to keep him alive and his wife who got him killed in the end. Funny thing, that.
Ironically many people think the euthanasia thing got its root in Roe vs Wade, including James Dobson I understand. It was apparently the right to privacy in Roe that enabled them to build on and use it to kill disabled adults.
I am still trying to figure out what right to privacy has to do with murder, I admit.