[misc.handicap] Laws Demanded To Kill "permanently Unconscious" Patients

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