Lord have mercy. The Culture of Death strikes again

[Orthosdoxa]

Judge to decide life support for baby

Judge to decide life support for baby

comtex_2005_02_09_up_0000-3861-.dstcommunity_05.ew

01

02/09/2005

170800



United Press International

Copyright 2005 by United Press International.



HOUSTON, Feb 09, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Texas court will decide whether a baby with a lethal deformation should be removed from life support or kept on ventilators as its mother wishes.

Sun Hudson was born Sept. 25 with a disease that keeps the baby from fully developing lungs and causes a shrunken upper body. Doctors said the child is suffocating. The boy's mother, Wanda Hudson, says "the sun that shines in the sky" will decide whether the child lives, the Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.

Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, following Texas law, said it is unethical to continue life support for the child and asked a Harris County Court to order life support ended. When the mother refused to allow it, the hospital hired an attorney to represent the woman in court.

The child suffers from thanatophoric dysplasia, which affects about 1 in every 60,000 births. The malady is usually discovered during prenatal care and the pregnancy ended.

Wanda Hudson told the Morning news: "I didn't receive prenatal care because I trusted in the sun. I also said, 'Sun is you are who you say you are, which is creator

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Ok, so the mom sounds a little flaky. But that's pretty scary that first parents are being given the right to kill their kids, NOW the right to keep them alive is being taken away.


LK

[Matrona]

Why can't they give that poor baby a lung transplant? Lord, have mercy!

[countrymousenc]

Why can't they give that poor baby a lung transplant? Lord, have mercy!

It is unlikely that the new lungs would grow, and if they did, would not have room to grow normally. This is one of those situations in which we just do not have the medical knowledge to keep this child alive, and he is dying. That doesn't mean that they should just go ahead and kill him. But part of the ethical dilemna, in the eyes of his caretakers, is whether prolonging his life by what used to be very unusual means (that didn't even exist several decades ago) is the right thing to do, either - whether it is causing him undue suffering.

I have heard stories of doctors and nurses putting some newborns to the side and withholding care so that they will die sooner. Maybe there is something in their reasoning that I don't understand, but that makes my blood run cold. I couldn't be a neonatal nurse and have that kind of thing on my hands. I couldn't live with it.

[gord96]

that is a tough situation...especially that without life support the child would probably be dead already.....are life support systems taking that child out of God's hands?

[countrymousenc]

that is a tough situation...especially that without life support the child would probably be dead already.....are life support systems taking that child out of God's hands?

That's one of the questions that ethicists debate. How far should we go in terms of medical intervention when there is no hope of recovery? There is a point, for instance, when cancer patients are simply kept as comfortable as possible with morphine, but no interventions are done that would prolong life. Is this wrong? What of the trauma patient who has no brain function outside the brain stem, and even that is not adequate to keep him breathing without a ventilator? The reality is that medical personnel have to make awful decisions about how far to go to extend a person's life for a little while longer.

Then, how do you decide, when there are two patients waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, and there is only one organ available, which patient will get it and which one will die? Are you going to save the teenager or the 30-yr-old father of two young children?

[Orthosdoxa]

The problem is that by "life support", sometimes it just means sustenance given by tube when the person is unable to feed themselves, as in the case of poor Terri Schiavo. Her husband is a monster.

[countrymousenc]

In Schiavo's case, I agree with you, kat, based on what I've heard and read. She deserves to live, and someone should be freed to find out whether she can swallow now. She might be able to. I hope God intervenes and saves her life. The difference is that her death is not imminent, and she might live on for many years.