And reporters are now raising questions about a right-to-die law Bush signed as Texas governor, contradicting his position in the Schiavo case. Just last week, the law was applied for the first time, allowing doctors to remove a critically ill infant from life support against his mother's wishes. According to the Houston Chronicle, this marks the first time in American history that courts allowed a pediatric patient to die against the wishes of their parent.[7] As the Knight Ridder News service reports: "The mother down in Texas must be reading the Schiavo case and scratching her head," said Dr. Howard Brody, the director of Michigan State University's Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. "This does appear to be a contradiction." Brody said that, in taking up the Schiavo case, Bush and Congress had shattered a body of bioethics law and practice."[8] HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State March 16, 2005, 12:10PM Baby dies after hospital removes breathing tube Case is the first in which a judge allowed a hospital to discontinue care By LEIGH HOPPER Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The baby wore a cute blue outfit with a teddy bear covering his bottom. The 17-pound, nearly 6-month-old boy wiggled with eyes open, his mother said, and smacked his lips. "I talked to him, I told him that I loved him. Inside of me, my son is still alive." Then at 2 p.m. Tuesday, a medical staffer at Texas Children's Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his birth Sept. 25. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died. "I talked to him, I told him that I loved him. Inside of me, my son is still alive," Wanda Hudson told reporters afterward. "This hospital was considered a miracle hospital. When it came to my son, they gave up in six months. ... They made a terrible mistake." Sun's death marks the first time a U.S. judge has allowed a hospital to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts. A similar case involving a 68-year-old man in a vegetative state at another Houston hospital is before a court now. "It's sad this thing dragged on for so long. We all feel it's unfair, that a child doesn't have a chance to develop and thrive," said William Winslade, a bioethicist and lawyer who is a professor at the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Paraphrasing the late Catholic theologian and ethicist Richard McCormick, Winslade added, "This isn't murder. It's mercy, and it's appropriate to be merciful in that way. It's not killing, it's stopping pointless treatment." The hospital's description of Sun ? that he was motionless and sedated for comfort ? has differed sharply from the mother's. Since February, the hospital has blocked the media from Hudson's invitation to see the baby, citing privacy concerns. "I wanted y'all to see my son for yourself," Hudson told reporters. "So you could see he was actually moving around. He was conscious." On Feb. 16, Harris County Probate Court Judge William C. McCulloch made the landmark decision to lift restrictions preventing Texas Children's from discontinuing care. However, an appeal by Hudson's attorney, Mario Caballero, and a procedural error on McCulloch's part prevented the hospital from acting for four weeks. Texas law allows hospitals to discontinue life-sustaining care, even if a patient's family members disagree. A doctor's recommendation must be approved by a hospital's ethics committee, and the family must be given 10 days from written notice of the decision to try and locate another facility for the patient. Texas Children's said it contacted 40 facilities with newborn intensive care units, but none would accept Sun. Without legal delays, Sun's care would have ended Nov. 28. Sun was born with a fatal form of dwarfism characterized by short arms, short legs and lungs too tiny, doctors said. Nearly all babies born with the incurable condition, often diagnosed in utero, die shortly after birth, genetic counselors say. Sun was delivered full term at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, but Hudson, 33, said she had no prenatal care during which his condition might have been discovered. He was put on a ventilator while doctors figured out what was wrong with him, and Hudson refused when doctors recommended withdrawing treatment. Texas Children's contended that continuing care for Sun was medically inappropriate, prolonged suffering and violated physician ethics. Hudson argued her son just needed more time to grow and be weaned from the ventilator. Another case involving a patient on life support ? a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state whose family wants to stop St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital from turning off his ventilator ? was scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Houston-based 1st Court of Appeals. But the case was transferred to the 14th Court of Appeals, which promptly issued a temporary injunction ordering St. Luke's not to remove the man's life support. No hearing date has been set. Chronicle reporter Todd Ackerman contributed to this report.
lauralisa
JoinedPosts by lauralisa
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67
Terri Schiavo petition on site
by missy04 ini was reading through the terrisfight.org site and ran across the section "how you can help".
there is a petition to sign on the site to save terri.
here is the link to it for those who want to sign it.
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XenaWarrior is Ill
by Thunder Rider ingot a call from xw a little while ago.
she was on her way to the hospital.
not sure what the problem is but she didn't sound too good.
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lauralisa
Hi -
I'm on the phone w/ her now. She's cracking me up because she's on a morphine drip. She is never gonna come home if they keep that up!
The spinal came back negative. No meningitis!!!
She says thank you all for your wonderful well wishes, and she'll get back to you all asap. -
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I wanna shoot
by SixofNine inoh oh oooh oh .
the whole day down.
tell me why i don't like mondays?
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lauralisa
OK Six.
Now I'm thinking of that line from "BANDITS."
---> in great Brooklyn accent: "So you feel the need to SHOOT? Go ahead then. SHOOT me." Repeat. -
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String theory, Relativity, and angels
by onacruse incurrent mathematical models of the universe involve what is termed 'hyper-dimension.".
ever read the book flatland?
it describes how a 2-dimensional being would perceive the intersection of a 3-dimensional object in "their" universe.. a flatlander would never be able to comprehend a sphere.
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lauralisa
{{onacruse}}
One can not have too many reference materials. -
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toot toot toot lookin out my back door
by xenawarrior inso i'm sitting here having coffee and i hear a very distinguishable sound out on my deck.
i looked out and this is what i saw.
i know they are around but i've never seen one come so close to the house before!
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lauralisa
Valis I think he's looking for FROGS
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Best South Park episode, cast your vote
by DanTheMan ini have only been watching sp for the past year or so, so i'm sure there's a lot of episodes i haven't seen, and i'm obviously a little late getting on the bandwagon.
but a couple of weekends ago they did a "25 most outrageous episodes" thing, and one of the episodes was where cartman had this j-lo hand puppet where he recorded songs and did some *ahem* other things involving ben affleck.
i don't remember laughing at anything so hard in my life.. oh, and of course the episode with mr. hankey and his drunken, verbally abusive wife.. so what's your fave?
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lauralisa
Hey Dan ! Great thread...
There was another 'sex-ed' episode... Mr. Garrison wanted to get fired for being gay so he could sue the school system and get rich. He had a difficult time proving he WAS gay, so, one day.......
He brings Mr. Slave, some "toys" and stuff to class and has him bend over a desk and omg there is a GERBIL involved... Stanley and Kyle try to 'object' to parents who send them to gay tolerance camp.......
Thought I'd never say 'over the line' w/ those guys but that one came close!!! LOL
Of course I threaten to send my kids to Tolerance Camp all the time now if they don't eat vegetables, etc. -
75
toot toot toot lookin out my back door
by xenawarrior inso i'm sitting here having coffee and i hear a very distinguishable sound out on my deck.
i looked out and this is what i saw.
i know they are around but i've never seen one come so close to the house before!
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lauralisa
OMG Lisa...
Get yer Billy bob teeth in QUICK before they get to your house......!!!!!!!
Have E. ready w/ camera !!! -
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It's an old one. But did anyone ever see the South Park on the Mormons???
by Confucious init was funny.
but at the same time, it was sad.
the south park crew was beating on the mormons.
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lauralisa
YOU'RE ALL GOING TO TOLERANCE CAMP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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lauralisa
Xenawarrior.
You are such a freak of nature.
Thank the gods!
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How Come The US Media is Silent?
by Kent in.
how come the us media haven't mentioned a word about us troops abusing children in iraq, in their prisons and on cuba?
it's all over europe - but inside the us the subject is never mentioned.. so much for the "land of freedom" (for war criminals!
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lauralisa
Kent:
This is from last year: (Rense.com is 'out there' but it's interesting stuff. Sorry I can not imbed the URL.)
"We have to sit on stories of serious physical abuse of Iraqi citizens. Most sensitive (and we put the blackout on this subject) are the numerous rapes and sexual assaults against Iraqis. Interesting are the unreported but fully known homosexual rapes...the real problem here is that US GI minorities are mostly responsible for these and Bush needs these votes in November so on with the lid...we donít think they can keep this shut up for too long...the Okinawa syndrome all over again." (July 20)
http://www.rense.com/general39/contr.htm
"It seems that guerrilla warfare is a real thing. Too much looting, assaulting Iraqi women, too much Muslim-bashing. No discipline in the US forces and the commanders have a hard time in controlling their men. Protestors are to be shown to be "die-hard Baathist supporters of the evil Saddam" and show pictures of a "commando" camp with pictures of Saddam and anti-US slogans." (June 12)
Since April, The Barnes Review News web site (www.tbrnews.org) has posted memos like this from an executive at a major TV network to selected News Division staff.