covici@ccs.covici.com (John Covici) (06/06/91)
Index Number: 16001 STATES, EUTHANASIA MOB, DEMAND LAWS TO KILL ``UNCONSCIOUS'' PATIENTS CLUB OF LIFE by Linda Everett Since the starvation murder of the comatose patient Nancy Cruzan in December, state legislators and the pro-death mafia have moved to capitalize on the hype about her ``right to die,'' to enact the broadest euthanasia laws to date. Financially strapped states are following Hitler's example, and targeting for death any patient labeled ``permanently unconscious'' or in a ``persistent vegetative state.'' Unlike the Cruzan legal decision, with its theme of ``doing what Nancy wanted,'' the bills now before state legislatures, and the proposals to declare the comatose legally dead, show open contempt for anyone's ``wishes.'' Oregon legislators want to give doctors the right to starve patients found to be both ``terminally ill'' and ``unconscious.'' This applies to anyone dazed by stroke or afflicted by Alzheimer's disease and dementia. It doesn't matter how briefly you are unconscious; if someone is not around to insist you are fed, you're lost. Oregon Senate bill 494 A, which passed the Senate and is now up for vote in the House Judiciary Committee, also provides for starving ``permanently unconscious'' patients who are deemed to have no reasonable chance of recovery to consciousness, and any patient who completely lacks awareness of self and the environment. This bill and Connecticut's pro-starvation bill 7184, up for vote in the House, define ``permanently unconscious'' and ``permanent vegetative state'' so broadly that medical and legal experts say the categories could easily encompass those who are profoundly retarded, as well as those who are so paralyzed they appear incapable of communication. - Killing with Impunity - Of course, neither bill asks any proof that one is permanently unconscious{--because no such proof exists, or can exist.} People in all levels of prolonged coma constantly defy present predictors of survival and recuperation. Even the British death mob, the Working Party on the Ethics of Prolonging Life and Assisting Death of the Institute of Medical Ethics admits: ``No available laboratory diagnostic test can indicate that a patient is permanently vegetative'' (The Lancet, Vol. 337, Jan 12, 1991). Nevertheless, Daniel Wikler, professor of medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, says such ``subjectively dead'' persons have lives not worth living. Therefore, he proposes that we change brain-death laws in this country to classify ``vegetative'' patients as being, simply, dead. Under that law, of course, killing such patients would be no big deal--they're ``dead'' already. New Jersey legislators have, in effect, done exactly that with their recent Declaration of Death Act. Now a doctor can declare a comatose person dead after doing a few tests at the bedside. Even if the doctor caused the injuries that led to the patient's coma or unconsciousness, the family has no recourse: The new law grants the doctor total immunity from any criminal, civil, or professional liability. Under laws like that, Dr. Josef Mengele of Auschwitz wouldn't be a Nuremberg criminal, he'd be a ``care giver.'' New Federalist V5, #21. John Covici covici@ccs.covici.com