Thursday, February 24, 2005

Infants and Life Support

Here's a story that is somewhat similar (the infant is on life support while Terri is not) to Terri Schiavo's case but has garnered much less attention.

A woman in Texas named Wanda Hudson is fighting against the hospital to keep her infant son named Sun on life support. Sun was born with "thanatophoric dysplasia, a genetic condition characterized by extremely short limbs, a narrow chest, small ribs and underdeveloped lungs. Infants usually are stillborn or die shortly after birth from respiratory failure. There have been rare documented cases of survivors, however."

A week ago, the Judge William C. McCulloch said, "I'm not saying whether they can or can't, but I am saying that they are not restrained. I am no longer prohibiting the hospital from removing Sun from life support."

Another article quotes John Paris, a Jesuit priest who teaches medical ethics at Boston College and has written extensively on the subject: "No judge has ever ordered the cessation of treatment while the baby is still alive," said. "Never."

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