Gennaro Carotenuto Le questioni etiche e sociali sottese al caso della signora Schiavo sono importantissime. Riprendo però dalla Rete questa notizia commento che mi sembra ineludibile nello svelare l’ipocrisia dei fondamentalisti protestanti.
—–
George W. Bush, nel suo ruolo di governatore del Texas, firmò una legge nel 1999 che autorizzava gli ospedali a sospendere i trattamenti ritenuti inutili anche contro il parere dei parenti. Inoltre la legge permette di sospendere tali trattamenti semplicemente se i parenti non sono in grado di pagare.
Il 15 marzo hanno tolto i tubi a un bambino di 17 mesi nel Texas, Sun Hudson, e li stanno per togliere a un immigrato greco di 68 anni, Spiro Nikolouzos, contro il parere dei parenti e in base alla legge voluta dal devastatore di Fallujah. Nell’ultimo caso il motivo è esplicitamente economico -l’immigrato greco non può pagare- e quindi non interessa alle stesse persone che si stanno mobilitando per Terri Schiavo.
********************
http://home.earthlink.net/~fsrhine/
In 1999, as governor of Texas, Bush signed into law this statute, which allows a hospital to discontinue life support, over the objections of the patient’s family, if the hospital’s ethics committee finds that the treatment is nonbeneficial. (link via Mark A.R. Kleiman) Although the law originally applied only to adult patients, in 2003 the Texas legislature
extended it to include children.
This past Tuesday, March 15, the law was used to remove a breathing tube from Sun Hudson, an African-American baby in Houston, against his mother’s wishes, causing his death:
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.
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.” [link via Long Story Short Pier]
Also in Houston, doctors are invoking the law Governor George W. Bush signed in announcing that they intend to cut off life support for Spiro Nikolouzos against his family’s wishes:
A patient’s inability to pay for medical care combined with a prognosis that renders further care futile are two reasons a hospital might suggest cutting off life support, the chief medical officer at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital said Monday.