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Saturday 28 March 2009

"Duty" to Die... well, if you're POOR

This is very old "news."
But I never read it at the time, and the law, so far as I know, still exists.
I knew of, but hadn't heard the name applied, "Futile Care Theory."

There is a truism that whenever someone says, "it's not about the money," that it's about.... the money.

So what is a life worth?

I think prayers for the soul of Tirhas Habtegiris are in order even at this late date, but prayers for the staff of Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano are probably more urgent those in the same position, and for the officials of the government of the Sovereign Hellhole of Texas, and states like them (Idaho?,) most of all.

A medical center
disconnected a dying, uninsured [emphasis supplied] cancer patient, Tirhas Habtegiris, from the ventilator that was keeping her alive.
The 27-year-old abdominal cancer patient was conscious and did not wish to be disconnected because she hoped that her mother would arrive from Africa for one last visit before she died. The hospital warned the patient and her family that it would keep her on the ventilator for just 10 more days.
Ms. Habtegiris died 16 minutes after the ventilator was shut off...The hospital acted pursuant to a law passed in 1999 that allowed it to discontinue "inappropriate" medical care despite the wishes of a patient or the patient's family.
Because the Culture of Death's attempts to deprive people of "futile care" continue.
I am also disturbed by support for eliminating the "dead donor rule" for organ procurement.
Oh, hell, why not snatch organs from living patients if they are either cognitively "devastated" or who will die pretty soon anyway?

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