St Luke's To Do the Right Thing
I have just heard from Jerri Ward: St. Luke's has agreed to continue to provide Andrea Clark life sustaining treatment under the auspices of the new doctor. Here is her letter:
"I want to let you know that St. Luke's is doing the right thing in this case now. The physician team met with the new attending and it went well. The team is on board and the medical futility procedure has been stopped. For the time being, Andrea will continue to receive life-sustaining and appropriate treatment at St. Luke's.
St. Luke's, and the involved physicians, are to be commended for reconsidering and deciding to continue Andrea's care."
Hat's off to Jerri and Andrea's family for their indomitable defense of the intrinsic worthiness of the life of Andrea Clark. And to those people who cared enough to let the world know that futile care theory is not going to be swallowed without a fight.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:31 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
This is an issue that like an onion has many layers.
We as Americans seem to buy into the Hollywood myth that we can all live forever. Fact of the matter is we will all one day face death.
It is very hard to decide which side of the fence to jump off on with this issue. It seems to be situational, and yet I hate situational ethics.
It is very hard to decide because I very well could have been one of those patients for whom this type of decision was being made.
But if you wanted to live, or your family wanted you to live, and the doctors said no, that would be about them deciding you had no right to go on living in the here and now.
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