Originally Posted - March 21, 2007

return home

I am periodically contacted regarding a developmentally disabled person who is being denied care with the intent of causing death. It usually takes the form of being denied nutrition and hydration (AKA food and water).

Most recently I was alerted to the case "Jane" (45) who developed pneumonia at the group home where she lived for 10 years. She was rushed to the hospital. The doctor wagged his head and told Jane's parents she could go "one way or the other" - meaning that Jane might live or die.

Jane's parents were advised to put Jane into a hospice where she would be denied nutrition and hydration until she dies. (That would take any uncertainty about which way things could go.) The hospice would be very humane about the killing and sedate Jane until her death. Ah, true humanitarians.

Jane's parents who visited her twice a year throughout her decade at the group home agreed. They too, wagged their heads and tearfully imagining Jane "suffered enough." It was time to put poor Jane out of their misery.

And so Jane was put in a hospice, sedated and denied fluids (1 week) and nutrition (2 weeks). The hospice doctor who ordered this said Jane had no "quality of life" and could not be rehabilitated.

Meanwhile, the staff from the group home, where Jane had lived, convinced their facility physician to visit Jane at the hospice to determine if she really was terminally ill. After examining her, he ordered hydration commence immediately, sedation stop, and a swallowing test to see if Jane could tolerate food.

Boy, can Jane swallow and eat! After she awoke from the sedation, she was so thirsty she drank several glasses of water! A day later Jane was offered pureed food which she devoured. As the group home director told me, "We are thankful that some doctors are willing to question the faulty diagnosis of other doctors". I am too. It saved Jane's life.

Do not think that institutional murder of people with disabilities is a rarity. It is not! This barbaric practice happens regularly in medical facilities across North America.

The organization I founded, HumanLifeMatters (www.HumanLifeMatters.com) is the Canadian affiliate of the Florida based Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. This is why we were contacted regarding Jane and other people with developmental disabilities in danger of being killed by dehydration and starvation. The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation is constantly getting calls concerning people who face the same fate as Terri Schiavo.

Demand better from those entrusted with the medical care of vulnerable populations. Physicians who deliberately kill patients with disabilities must be charged with murder. Medical staff that aid or abet in the killing of disabled patients must be brought to justice. Politicians who advocate euthanasia or assisted suicide are unfit for public office and must be put out of office at the ballot box. Hospices must provide comfort to those who are dying, never engage or assist in killing the most vulnerable of society. If they don't --demand they lose their operating licenses or accreditation.

Start a local Christian hospice that believes in the sanctity and dignity of every human life.

Civilized societies take care of their vulnerable people. They never kill them. http://markpickup.blogspot.com/ and http://humanlifematters.blogspot.com
3-21-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette