Bet you didn’t hear about this Terri Schiavo-like case in Arizona

IntellectualConservative.com ^ | June 27, 2007 | Rachel Alexander

[az4vlad]

Don’t expect to find this miraculous story in the pages of the New York Times or featured on CNN, because it would undermine their pro-euthanasia political agenda. In Arizona, a woman had doctors remove food, water, and medicine life support from her husband, Jesse Ramirez, a few days after he entered a coma due to a car rollover accident on May 30. Ramirez, a Gulf War veteran, and his wife had been arguing in the car over a cell phone number of another man that Ramirez found in her cell phone when the rollover happened. Ramirez suffered a broken neck, fractured skull and face, punctured lung and broken ribs. Only 10 days after the accident, his wife instructed doctors to remove all life support from him. His family objected and the Alliance Defense Fund filed an emergency motion with the court on their behalf. Maricopa County Superior court Judge Paul Katz wisely ordered on June 13 that Ramirez be put back on life support and assigned a guardian ad litem as his advocate while the legal arguments were sorted out. Ramirez’s wife responded by petitioning the court again asking to remove him from life support.

Three weeks after the accident, Ramirez regained consciousness, and is now shaking his head and answering yes and no to questions. This miraculous recovery reinforces the importance of using caution when taking incapacitated relatives off of life support. In too many cases, it is impossible to determine when or if someone in a coma will come out of it. Had Jesse been removed from life support on June 9 as his wife requested, he would have been dead within a few days of starvation and dehydration. Because of their tumultuous marriage, his wife was not in the best position to make a determination as to whether he should continue on life support. His aunt has said that she suspects his wife was trying to get rid of him. Ramirez had long suspected that his wife was having extra-marital affairs on him. In life or death situations like this, where a spouse may not have the best interests of an incapacitated person at heart, the interests of other family members in preserving life need to be taken into consideration. Too bad this was not done with Terri Schiavo. We will never know whether she would have ever fully recovered, and even if she hadn’t and the quality of her life remained at the level of a mentally impaired person (which brings up the separate but equally troubling issue of whether it is acceptable to kill someone because they are mentally impaired), the decision to remove her life support should never have been left to her spouse who did not have her best interests at heart.

[kitkat]

Thanks for this good news.

[lula]

ping

[kenth]

Only 10 days after the accident, his wife instructed doctors to remove all life support from him.

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Come on, it was ten whole days. You can’t expect her to wait forever. It was time for both of them to move on. They should have just done what God wanted and let him go... by killing him through starvation.

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm