Spiro Nikolouzos
jmhm has kept up with the case of Spiro Nikolouzos here - go look at her page and the blog she links. He's one of the many people who was supposed to be taken off life support due to the Texas Futile Care Law, which Bush signed while he was governor. The Law states that a hospital can take someone off life support against their wishes and the wishes of their family if a committee assigned by the hospital agrees that there's no hope of recovery, and the family cannot pay for the medical care. At the time of the whole Terri Schiavo boondogle, there were two people being affected: a baby named Sunny, who was the first infant to die under the Law (the Law was only expanded to include minors in I think 2003), and Spiro Nikolouzos. As Julia says, "...to the great relief of the Nikolouzos family, a hospital corporation with financial ties to TomDeLay swooped in and agreed to take Spiro Nikolouzos in and keep him on the machines. You will, I'm sure, be astonished to hear that, national attention having passed, the family of Spiro Nikolouzos has been informed that he is being taken off life support early next month." (original source).
I guess that honestly, I think that the family of Spiro Nikolouzos would be happier if they could let him go, but that's not the point. It annoys the hell out of me that the Republican's interfered in some pretty white woman's case, where the wishes were made legally clear (though perhaps not morally clear, for some). They did this in the name of "preserving life", but on the other hand, they're doing everything in their power to prevent people from being able to handle catastrophic medical situations. One of Bush's biggest goals for his last term is tort reform, especially making it harder to sue doctors for malpractice, employers for on-the-job injuries, and corporations for personal injury. So it will be a lot harder to raise the cash to help an injured loved one in the first place. Then, they've got this awful bankrupcy bill, which will make it harder for people to get out of medical debt once they're in it. Decisions like this are hard, policy about how to honor the critically person's rights without taking too much money away from other essential services, about how to make people contribute to their loved ones' care without crushing them, etc., is incredibly hard. I don't think it's too much to ask for a little honesty about this. There isn't going to be a perfect solution in this day and age, and people are going to get hurt. Inevitably, there are going to be individuals who are really hurt by whatever good decision we can make - like TS's parents. But it's completely inexcusable to lie about this, to claim your values are in one direction while acting completely differently, in secret.
Oh oh yeah, I should mention again that the National Right to Life group supports the Texas Futile Care Law, despite the fact that they protested on behalf of TS.
I guess that honestly, I think that the family of Spiro Nikolouzos would be happier if they could let him go, but that's not the point. It annoys the hell out of me that the Republican's interfered in some pretty white woman's case, where the wishes were made legally clear (though perhaps not morally clear, for some). They did this in the name of "preserving life", but on the other hand, they're doing everything in their power to prevent people from being able to handle catastrophic medical situations. One of Bush's biggest goals for his last term is tort reform, especially making it harder to sue doctors for malpractice, employers for on-the-job injuries, and corporations for personal injury. So it will be a lot harder to raise the cash to help an injured loved one in the first place. Then, they've got this awful bankrupcy bill, which will make it harder for people to get out of medical debt once they're in it. Decisions like this are hard, policy about how to honor the critically person's rights without taking too much money away from other essential services, about how to make people contribute to their loved ones' care without crushing them, etc., is incredibly hard. I don't think it's too much to ask for a little honesty about this. There isn't going to be a perfect solution in this day and age, and people are going to get hurt. Inevitably, there are going to be individuals who are really hurt by whatever good decision we can make - like TS's parents. But it's completely inexcusable to lie about this, to claim your values are in one direction while acting completely differently, in secret.
Oh oh yeah, I should mention again that the National Right to Life group supports the Texas Futile Care Law, despite the fact that they protested on behalf of TS.