Children Fight to Save Comatose Mom From Life Support Removal

LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/21/06 | Peter J. Smith

[jwalsh07]

No. The family believes the money to care for their mother will appear out of thin air. They are unwilling to transfer her to a hospital that will care for her, gratis.

How much money is spent at this hospital caring for illegal immigrants?

[HairOfTheDog]

Forget it. You are talking to folks who think it was illegal for Terri to have a sip of water, or even a ice chip on her parced lips while dying.

I'd like to see a little bit of growth and maturity in this forum, and that growth and maturity means we can discuss medical decisions and medical issues without comparing every single case and every single patient to Terri Schiavo.

This is not Terri. To continue to bring her up as THE beginning and end of all medical ethics would be like a political movement who could discuss NOTHING except in the context of the Nixon/Kennedy debate. That was but one debate between two men who touched politics for a time. In the larger scheme of things, it will not guide us well into the future to not listen and learn from other men and women who both went before and came after them.

[Thoeting]

The culture of death indeed.

My mother has made it clear to me verbally and in writing, I am never to pull the plug on her ever. She swears she will come back and haunt me every day of my life.

I hope that I will be able to follow her wishes in today's culture of "doing what is good RIGHT now."

[GeronL]

thanks

[FarmerW]

Well said!

My husband and I were talking about someone who died a few years back. I made the observation to him that when Jesus walked the earth, even he didn't raise everyone. We know he had the power to do so.

[bjs1779]

I'd like to see a little bit of growth and maturity in this forum, and that growth and maturity means we can discuss medical decisions and medical issues without comparing every single case and every single patient to Terri Schiavo.

You supported Terri Schiavo's dehydration too, correct?

[FarmerW]

"pulling the plug" isn't the usual decision families have to make. Commonly the decision is in starting the plug aka respirator.

I am not just asking you Thoeting, but I am interested in others opinions. For those of you who support never pulling the plug, does that mean to you that you will do everything medically possible to extend life? All chemotherapys no matter how endstage the cancer is? All surgeries no matter how little chance of survival or how long or painful the recovery? If you were doing CPR on someone would you ever stop and declare them dead?

I am not being sarcastic, I really just don't understand some people's ideas on end of life decisions.

[NorthWoody]

That was my initial thought.

Maybe her dialysis problem last June was God calling her home, and man's machines have kept her alive against His will.

That's another way of looking at it.

I'm just glad I'm not in the shoes of the family or the doctors.

[HairOfTheDog]

You supported Terri Schiavo's dehydration too, correct?

You just can't get off the Terri as the subject, can you?

[HairOfTheDog]

My mother has made it clear to me verbally and in writing, I am never to pull the plug on her ever. She swears she will come back and haunt me every day of my life. I hope that I will be able to follow her wishes

I am sure you love your mother as I did mine, but that is one hell of a guilt trip to lay on a family member, and on society that will pick up the tab when all your resources are exhausted.

FarmerW asks some seemingly simple questions at 107, but I'm starting to wonder what some FReepers think the answers to those questions are?

[sinkspur]

How much money is spent at this hospital caring for illegal immigrants?

I'd bet a negligible amount, in the emergency room.

All those non-emergency cases are referred to Parkland, the Dallas county hospital.

[bjs1779]

You just can't get off the Terri as the subject, can you?

Does that mean you supported her death by dehydration and don't want to admit it now?

[pageonetoo]

I'm just glad I'm not in the shoes of the family or the doctors.

That is something I wonder about. We can all pass judgment from a distance, but it's a little more difficult up close and personal.

My biggest challenge to those ardent Terri cultists, is where exactly does the faith come into play. They seem to align themselves as people of faith, but the emphasis is not on whether God can raise the dead, but whether somebody can pull a plug. through it all, the supporters agree the gum;t should foot the bills.

My God raised Lazarus from dead. He stank, according to the statements of witnesses, but came out of the grave to sit with Jesus. Blind received sight, and lame walked, among the followers of Jesus. Some people think He stayed on the cross!

[HairOfTheDog]

It means its time to stop talking about Terri every time there is a medical ethics thread.

[visualops]

Just a guess but some insurance has a cap on what it will pay out over a lifetime. Nowadays hospitalization is so expensive if you have 1 or 2 million $ cap you may be SOL at a bad time.

[Lesforlife]

Why Texas RTL supported it is beyond amazing!

[bjs1779]

It means its time to stop talking about Terri every time there is a medical ethics thread.

Why don't you want to talk about her? Didn't you advocate her death? Aren't you proud of that or what?

[Lesforlife]

Sadly, it's doubtful.

[floriduh voter]

I wonder how long Texas has been picking on people who are on dialysis. Dialysis didn't used to be considered extraordinary measures.

[the invisib1e hand]

just days after [...] insurance stopped full coverage of her long-term care, the Regency Hospital’s bioethics committee [...] discontinue life-preserving dialysis treatment for their mother within 10 days.

This is probably all anyone needs to know about "bioethics."

It isn't a culture of death, so much as it's a culture of the other guy's death. Qui bono?