Posted on 04/30/2017 7:02:32 PM PDT by Coleus
PORTLAND, Ore. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A bill in Oregon's senate is crafted to allow mentally ill patients to be starved to death.
Oregon law mandates that healthcare providers give food and water to all conscious patients, who can receive it naturally such as by spoon feeding. SB 494, which is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee, would remove this mandate for patients suffering from dementia and other mental illnesses.
Gayle Atterberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, remarked, "Nursing homes and other organizations dedicated to protecting vulnerable patients work hard to make sure patients receive the food and water they need. Senate Bill 494, pushed hard by the insurance lobby, would take patient care a step backwards and decimate patient rights."
A recent case leading up to this legislation highlights the potential danger of the measure once passed. Bill Harris is a resident of Oregon and legal guardian of his wife Nora Harris. Nora suffers from Alzheimer's Disease and must be fed with a spoon. Bill Harris petitioned the court to issue an order directing the nursing home that's caring for his wife to stop feeding her altogether.
Oregon law, however, requires that conscious patients be given food and water if it can be administered naturally to the patient and consumed by ordinary eating and drinking. Because of this law, the court refused to honor the request by Bill Harris.
SB 494 would remove this safeguard and allow for the starvation and dehydration of such patients at the request of a legal guardian or by third parties if guardianship was lacking. The law would also appoint a committee of unelected officials and give them the power to make future changes to advanced medical directives without oversight or approval by the Oregon Legislature. Many fear this provision would result in a rapid erosion of patients' rights under the strong lobby of insurance companies.
Oregon already allows IVs and feeding tubes to be withdrawn from otherwise viable patients at the request of guardians and third parties. This causes horrible death by dehydration over a matter of days. SB 494 would extend that gruesome prerogative to include cases of "spoon feeding" of conscious patients, who are mentally incompetent.
Terri Schiavo made headlines when her feeding tube was removed at the request of her husband. This caused Schiavo to die a slow and agonizing death over the course of 13 days. Her brother, Bobby Schindler gave this account of her last days:
My sister's lips were horribly cracked to the point they were blistering. Her skin became jaundiced with areas that turned different shades of blue. Terri's breathing became rapid and uncontrollable. Her moaning, at times, was raucous, which indicated to us the insufferable pain she was experiencing. Terri's face became skeletal, with blood pooling in her deeply sunken eyes and her teeth protruding forward. What will be forever seared in my memory is the look of utter horror on my sister's face when my family visited her just after she died.
Oregon Right to Life is providing this link for Oregon residents to contact their state senator and ask them to stop SB 494 from becoming law. Catholics are asked to contact the archdiocese of Portland and encourage Abp. Alexander Sample to continue fighting against this bill.
Most people don’t understand what hospice is all about.
By the time their loved one is not well they don’t realize that there is a process in place to dehydrate and starve a terminally ill patient.
I found hospice to be quite different than that. My mother had already starved and dehydrated herself because that’s what Alzheimer’s patients do. Hospice helped me understand what was going on and relieved me of the notion that I wasn’t doing all I could for her.
They gave me the tools and the understanding to deal with what was happening. I think I was lucky I called on them when I did. She died less than two weeks after their first visit and I had no idea how fast that was coming.
It is a Liberal state run by Democrats. That’s it in a nutshell. This is a disgrace.
I think Bill Harris and the lawmaker who sponsored this bill should be given the opportunity of experiencing death by starvation.
Let them get right to the brink of death and then see how they feel about it.
Not a pleasant way to die.
Well, there goes the Oregonian Legislature, if ever a demented group there was, the biggest batch of moral reprobates since the ACLU was formed.
That’s how I see it too..... he just wants her out of the way...
Oregon wants to pass a law denying feeding to anyone who refuses to bake a cake or sell flowers to LGBTQ people. (just kidding but add up the pieces and its coming)
Likely this is a two-step strategy. First make it OK to cut off grandma’s food and water. Then when the public is well and truly horrified by the prolonged suffering, kick into the real program by suggesting, “What they all need, for pity’s sake, is lethal injections.”
Saves money. Nothing’s cheaper than death.
This is awful, we took care of my Mom in our home for over a year, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s/ Dementia. It was a very hard year. We would never resort to starvation that’s crazy unless, your a liberal Democrat, In their world it’s great.
An argument can be made liberalism is a mental illness.
Sorry for your loss and experience. We used hospice for the in laws, thye weren’t quite there as dementia goes, mom a bit more so..
Oregin could do it like the eskimos.. just put your impaired and disabled folks on an ice floe and let nature take its course. Oregon used to have glaciers, maybe they all melted tho, globull varming and all.
The Party of the Liberally controlled Dems is the present day version of the Party of Ba’al.
death panels aren’t needed
whew...
Demonic
I am not surprised that Brown, Wyden, Merkley and the rest of Oregon democrats want to just starve the elderly. It gives them more money to take care of illegal border crossers and muslim “refugees” which will provide them with more democratic votes because they all reproduce like rabbits.
SB 494, which is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee, would remove this mandate for patients suffering from dementia and other mental illnesses.
Because they are unable to complain about it or understand what is being done to them. I can think of no other rationale for denying food and water to someone who is willing to take food and water.
It’s worse than terrible Oregon is even considering this change...it would be interesting to know who presented this besides the husband......someone had to bring it to the Senate etc. so who’s pushing it???
We treat our animals better.
Someone tied into the state’s health care racket? Er, exchange?
The will to live is strong. If someone denies them the food and water and they have a will to live then there is no justification.
judas h priest
I agree and for someone with dementia eating and drinking are often their last conscious acts of free will. The whole process of dementia is extremely difficult for the patient and all involved but, IMO, however degraded their mental faculties are it is their decision. A caregiver can only offer them the option but it is not for the caregiver to deny the option.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.