Free Republic

  Rachel Nyirahabiyambere and one of her grandchildren. WASHINGTON, D.C., March 11, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Rwandan immigrant woman and survivor of the horrors of the 1994 genocide who had her feeding tube removed because a U.S. Catholic-affiliated hospital deemed her care too expensive, apparently will not die of starvation and dehydration thanks to a court order and the efforts of her children. Rachel Nyirahabiyambere, a 58-year-old grandmother and refugee from war-torn Rwanda, had been denied food and water since Feb. 19 after her feeding tube was removed by order of her court-appointed guardian. Now 21 days later and still...

Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The column discusses hospice care and gives individuals and families the tools they need to choose a good hospice care provider. This series warns readers about end of life issues and the need to monitor the care given to loved ones. The IRLC director also describes what readers can do to protect themselves from the looming culture of death which permeates the thinking of many medical facilities and health care providers...

Milan, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- An Italian court has denied a request by a disabled woman's father to remove her feeding tube and authorize her death by starvation and dehydration. Eluana Englaro has been a coma for 15 years after an automobile accident seriously injured her and, this year, her father asked a Milan court for permission to remove her feeding tube. This isn't the first time Englaro's case had been in court. In April 2005, the Italian Supreme Court confirmed a lower court ruling to keep her feeding tube in place. That case had also been brought by Englaro's father,...

In a provocative article, an Italian medical professor argues that Pope John Paul II didn't just simply slip away as his weakness and illness overtook him in April 2005. Intensive care specialist Dr. Lina Pavanelli has concluded that the ailing Pope's April 2 death was caused by what the Catholic Church itself would consider euthanasia. She bases this conclusion on her medical expertise and her own observations of the ailing pontiff on television, as well as press reports and a subsequent book by John Paul's personal physician. The failure to insert a feeding tube into the patient until just a...

Pope Rules Patients in Permanent Vegetative State May Not be Denied Artificial Nutrition and Hydration Response to certain questions raised by US Conference of Catholic Bishops concerning artificial nutrition and hydration By John-Henry Westen VATICAN CITY, September 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In most hospitals in North America, families of patients in permanent vegetative state are asked if they wish their family member to have their artificial feeding tube removed. According to a definitive ruling by the Vatican made public today, the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from such patients is immoral. The ruling from the Vatican's Congregation for the...

Brain-Damaged Man "Awakened" After Six Years of Semi-Consciousness By Elizabeth O'Brien NEW YORK, August 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A severely brain-damaged man who was in a minimally conscious state for six years has recently regained new levels of awareness and physical capabilities after receiving electrical brain implants. The unnamed 38-year old man had his head repeatedly kicked during a mugging in 1999 and was left unable to talk or move properly. In addition, he was kept alive on a feeding tube.In a study led by Dr. Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in New York, researchers...

A Monona (WI) woman is likely to remove the feeding tube of her Marine husband, who is in hospice care with a severe brain injury. Staff Sgt. Chad Simon, 32, was wounded by a roadside bomb Nov. 8 near Fallujah, Iraq. Simon's wife, Regina, had his feeding tube removed last Friday. It was reinserted Monday, but friends say the family plans to honor Simon's living will, which specifically states he does not want to be kept alive in a vegetative state. "He listed very explicit instructions concerning his care," said the family's attorney, Jack Schuster. Schuster said he couldn't divulge...

Motor neurone disease sufferer Willie Terpstra, who went to China this year seeking a miracle cure, is now unable to talk. Neither can she eat properly, with food having to be forced into her stomach through a tube, and sleep is becoming increasingly difficult for her. She is dying after radical and controversial surgery which involved two million cells taken from the noses of aborted fetuses injected into her brain on March 23 under local anaesthetic. Using her electronic keyboard Mrs Terpstra said she was disappointed with the surgery. "I would not do it again," she said. "It cost too...

LARGO - Refusing to give up on the Terri Schiavo case, Gov. Jeb Bush has asked Pinellas prosecutors to sort out time discrepancies Michael Schiavo has provided regarding the hour he found his wife unconscious 15 years ago. State Attorney Bernie McCabe has agreed to review the time elements in the case, his chief assistant, Bruce Bartlett, said Thursday. "We are going to look into the circumstances surrounding the times," said Bartlett, who declined to label the review an investigation. "The governor has expressed concern over that aspect of the case." Michael Schiavo has said he called 911 immediately after...

Charles R. McNabb was five months into a hunger strike — his 5-foot-9 frame withered to less than 100 pounds — when he was wheeled into the Airway Heights prison infirmary last year. The prison medical staff wanted to insert a feeding tube. McNabb, convicted of arson, wanted to continue starving. He was remorseful, he had told jailers, for badly burning his stepdaughter.(snip) The Washington State Court of Appeals yesterday ruled that the Department of Corrections (DOC) was justified in force-feeding McNabb, setting a precedent for other state inmates who attempt hunger strikes. The five-page ruling dismissed McNabb's claim that...

LONDON — Leslie Burke does not want to spend the rest of his life imagining a slow death by starvation. He can picture it: lying still, unable to communicate but conscious every second as his doctors let him die. "That is, in my mind, the most inhumane way possible for someone to die," said Burke, 45, who suffers from a degenerative brain condition that in 15 to 20 years is expected to incapacitate him, taking away his ability to speak. Burke has launched a legal battle in Britain that has far-reaching medical and ethical implications, raising questions about patient autonomy,...

When Amy McKenzie was 4 years old, she began to lose her ability to hear and to speak. She learned sign language to communicate with her parents, Jenny and McNeil McKenzie, but she didn't have to use it to let her parents know how much she loved automobile racing. Her parents are both racing fans — McNeil raced for many years at Sumter Speedway — and it was something that came naturally to her. Along with the dirt-track racing, Amy is a NASCAR fan as well. She had an affinity for the late Dale Earnhardt and that grew to include...

LONDON, May 19 (UPI) -- A terminally ill British man's request to be kept alive indefinitely has sparked legal debate over the economic impact on the National Healthcare System. Leslie Burke, 45, suffers from a degenerative brain condition and won a landmark case last year granting him the right to stop doctors from withholding food and water until he dies from his ailment. The General Medical Council has appealed the ruling to the High Court, saying it created confusion between the roles of doctor and patient. Decisions on treatment should be made by doctors, not patients, it contended. The council's...

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Scott Thomas' mother tells FCN his wife plans to put him in hospice and remove his feeding tube if she gains custody of him in two weeks. In the two conversations FCN has had with his wife, she would not confirm those are her plans.

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- 34-year old Scott Thomas married Liza Thomas in 2001. They bought a home and had a baby boy. But one September day, paramedics found Scott on his kitchen floor with several hairline fractures down the left side of his head. Scott spent two months in a coma. Scott's mom, Pamela Patton, says Liza had plans to put Scott in Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, so she filed for temporary guardianship in November and won. For months, Pamela took care of Scott in her home, and worked with him every day. "He watches you, he listens, he smiles,...

Case Similar to Terri Schiavo's Has Wife Deciding Her Husband's Fate by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor May 15, 2005 Jacksonville, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A case similar to that of Terri Schiavo has a Florida woman holding her husband's fate in her hands. Schiavo's family is calling on Jacksonville resident Eliza Thomas to allow her husband to live. Scott Thomas suffered brain injury in September of 2004 and has since been incapacitated and dependent on others. As with Terri, Scott's wife is seeking to move him to a hospice and remove the gastric tube that provides him with food and water....

Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation Urges Wife of Disabled Jacksonville Man to Err on the Side of LifeTo: National DeskContact: Pamela F. Hennessy for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, 727-445-1766, phenn@zimp.orgCLEARWATER, Fl., May 14 /Christian Wire Service/ –- The volunteers with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, along with the family of Terri Schiavo, are urging Jacksonville, Florida resident, Eliza Thomas, to allow her 34 year old husband to live.The Foundation has learned that Scott Thomas suffered brain injury in September of 2004 and has since been incapacitated and dependent on others. His mother, Pamela Patton, has petitioned the courts for guardianship of the...

‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’ Tracy Gaskill shows major signs of recovery after critical accident in 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By FOSS FARRAR, Arkansas City Traveler For nearly three years, Don and Stella Gaskill had hoped their severely injured granddaughter would talk again. Just recently, their prayers were answered. On Sept. 3, 2002, Tracy Gaskill suffered critical internal and head injuries when her pickup overturned on its top. Doctors told her relatives that night that she probably would die by noon the next day, Don Gaskill said this morning. “That accident scared us to death,” said Gaskill, who lives in rural Winfield. Tracy...

San Antonio hospital set to remove man from life support 04/28/2005 Associated Press A man in a persistent vegetative state whose family battled with a Houston hospital to stop his removal from life support is set to be removed from support Tuesday at a San Antonio hospital, his family said. The family of Spiro Nikolouzos, 68, has vowed to keep him on life support and is trying to get him moved back to the nursing home where he was sent after leaving the Houston hospital. A nursing home official said Thursday they would take him back. "I'm not going to...

A judge cleared the way for federal officials to have a feeding tube inserted in a Cuban exile who is on a weekslong hunger strike to protest his detention as a suspected spy.