Think It Can’t Happen in the U.S.? Texas Hospital Ends Life Support of Fully-Conscious Patient
By The Blaze. . .In 2015, a 46-year-old Texan, Christopher David Dunn, was diagnosed with a noncancerous but otherwise unidentified mass on his pancreas. Though Dunn was fully-conscious and clearly expressing his desire to live, the Houston Methodist Hospital’s administrative “death panel” ruled to discontinue life-sustaining care.
J. Richard Cheney, the Meeting Chair of the Houston Methodist Bioethics Committee, sent a letter to Dunn and his mother, Evelyn Kelly, which read: “The Committee has decided that life-sustaining treatment is medically inappropriate for Chris and that all treatments other than those needed to keep him comfortable should be discontinued and withheld.”
Dunn was a former sheriff’s deputy and Homeland Security officer but had no health insurance at the time of his illness. Along with his family, Dunn filed a lawsuit against the hospital in an attempt to save his life.
“The hospital wants to turn Chris’ nutrients and extra air off and they are playing God. They want to kill my son. They say there is nothing else they can do for him, but I don’t believe that,” claimed Dunn’s mother. “When they found out that Chris did not have insurance, they said they were done.”
Chris succumbed to his illness one month after the hospital discontinued treatment. (Read more from “Think It Can’t Happen in the U.S.? Texas Hospital Ends Life Support of Fully-Conscious Patient” HERE)
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Fight over Care of Brain-Damaged Baby Divides Britain
By The New York Post. Alfie Evans does not know it, but he is the subject of a national debate in Britain, international diplomacy and a bitter legal dispute. He is held up as a tragedy, a beacon of hope and an object lesson. And he might not live to turn 2 years old.
The hospital and doctors treating him in Liverpool say that Alfie suffers from a degenerative neurological condition that is certainly fatal, that he is in a semi-vegetative state and that the only humane course of action is to let him die. His parents, supported by the Italian and Polish governments and the pope, are not convinced that he is beyond hope, or even that the doctors understand his condition, and they want to continue his care.
On Wednesday, the British Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that not only approved the withdrawal of care and sustenance, but also prohibited his parents from seeking treatment elsewhere, despite an invitation to take him to a hospital in Rome. The decision is wrenching to the parents, the courts have said, but prolonging Alfie’s life would prolong his suffering, and so it would be contrary to his interests. (Read more from “Fight over Care of Brain-Damaged Baby Divides Britain” HERE)
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