As the doctor with the tantrum busies himself with kicking the dog and stomping on bugs, a forum comes together to discuss this whole matter on the craft of killing.
How to Handle Life's Tasks -- Balancing the Wheel of Life: The Canadian Mental Health Association will present speaker Dr. Pooneh Mahdavi, Wednesday, June 11, 7 p.m. at John Braithwaite Community Centre, 145 West First St., North Vancouver. Info: 604-987-6959. Admission by donation.
Ethical Issues Around Withdrawal of Care -- Arising from the Golubchuk decision: A lunch time discussion presented by the Coastal Clinical Ethics Committee. Dr. Richard Lupton, senior medical director, will be speaking June 12 at Lions Gate Hospital Auditorium, 231 East 15th St., North Vancouver. Info: 604-988-3131, ext. 4485 or gillian.stegemann@vch.ca............
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News media are reporting the case under both spellings. Perhaps we can ascertain the correct spelling, and in the meantime I will continue searches for both.
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A pro-family attorney involved in a Florida right-to-life case is hoping that the dispute can remain civil even though the parties disagree about this very fundamental issue.
The name Terri Schiavo comes to mind instantly any time there is a dispute between family members over removing life support from a loved one. The media circus and bitter public battle between Schiavo's husband – who successfully fought to end her life – and the rest of her family – who wanted to care for her until her natural death – scarred the memory of the nation.
One pro-life attorney in Florida hopes the case in which he is now involved will not be a repeat of the Schiavo case in any of those respects. Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Joseph Radowicz is representing the mother of Karen Webber. Late in 2007, Mrs. Webber suffered a stroke. She has since been receiving nursing care and hospital treatment.
"At the end of March of 2008, her husband, Mr. Webber, had decided that he wanted her declared incompetent. It's his position that she's not able to make her own decisions concerning her health care. And he's decided that he wanted to have the plug pulled. So he's issued an order, or had an order issued to that effect," Radowicz explains.
Karen Webber's mother, Martha Tatro, filed suit challenging that order, and that is when Radowicz got involved. But he says the initial dispute between the husband and mother is where the similarities between the Webber and Schiavo cases end.
"There was a hearing held and there was an injunction entered by consent of all parties to continue Karen's care in the meantime. That's been the case ever since," Radowicz contends.
And, in addition to mutually agreeing that Mrs. Webber's treatment will continue while the legal issues are resolved, Radowicz says the relationship between Karen's husband and mother has remained civil.
"At this point right here, it's just the issue over Karen and Karen's care and whether or not the plug should be pulled or not. In terms of how this litigation has proceeded and how people have been handling each other, it's been quite respectful," he says. "And I hope that that continues, and I believe the other side believes the same. I've had conversations with their counsel, and you know the focus here is to try to keep things as respectful as possible, [to] try not to make everything personal, and let the process play out the way that it does," Radowicz adds.
The most recent development in the case is that a three member examining committee has been appointed to consider whether or not Karen Webber is competent to make her own medical decisions. Witnesses agree that she can communicate by blinking her eyes, shaking her head, and giving hand signals in response to questions. The issue is over whether she is mentally capable of understanding her condition and making decisions about her care.
"What these people do is they submit a recommendation to the court, and the court's going to look to them for guidance in terms of whether or not to declare Karen competent or incompetent. So, just because they say something doesn't necessarily mean that that's going to be the end result. It's still for the court to decide, and those things are going to be factors that the court's going to consider and the court has to consider. But the court can go beyond that and look at various other items, as well," Radowicz says.
And Radowicz notes that, even if the court finds Karen Webber to be mentally incompetent, that does not necessarily mean that her feeding tube will be disconnected.
"In the event that that would happen, the next portion of the law is that you would have to make the decision; there would have to be somebody appointed to make the decisions for her...And, based upon the information in the evidence that we have...Karen would not have wanted to have the feeding tube removed and that she doesn't want to go to hospice," he points out. "And, because of that...the court should not allow the feeding tube to be removed [because] she would not have wanted that. And, whoever the guardian would happen to be would have to honor that."
Despite his obvious desire to win his case, both for his client and to protect her daughter's life, Radowicz says he has one big concern about the case.
"And the one thing that we're, on both sides, I think, are concerned about with the public aspect of this is that we certainly don't want others from the outside that are, more or less, going to be fanatical and start saying things or leaving threats or messages on either side because I just don't think that's helpful. I think it may actually make things worse," Radowicz says.
Under Florida law, the three members of the examining committee have 15 days to report their findings back to the court.
Is Florida case a Terri Schiavo repeat?
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