Progress in the War Against Conscience Rights

by Nancy Valko, RN

As I wrote in my 2016 blog “Conscientious Objection, Conscience Rights and Workplace Discrimination” :

The tragic cases of Nancy Cruzan and Christine Busalacchi , young Missouri women who were claimed to be in a “persistent vegetative state” and starved and dehydrated to death, outraged those of us in Missouri Nurses for Life and we took action.

Besides educating people about severe brain damage, treatment, cases of recovery and the radical change in medical ethics that could lead to the legalization of euthanasia, we also fought for healthcare providers’ rights against workplace discrimination for refusing to participate in deliberate death decisions. We talked to nurses who were threatened with termination.

Although Missouri had some protections against forcing participating in abortion, there were no statutes we could find where health care providers were protected against being forced to participate in deliberate death decisions. We were also told by some legislators that our chance of success was almost nil.

Nevertheless, we persisted and after years of work and enduring legislators watering down our original proposal to include lethal overdoses and strong penalties, Missouri Revised Statutes, Section 404.872.1 was finally signed into law in 1992. It states:

Refusal to honor health care decision, discrimination prohibited, when.

404.872. No physician, nurse, or other individual who is a health care provider or an employee of a health care facility shall be discharged or otherwise discriminated against in his employment or employment application for refusing to honor a health care decision withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment if such refusal is based upon the individual’s religious beliefs, or sincerely held moral convictions.

(L. 1992 S.B. 573 & 634 § 7)

(Continue Reading)

UK court rules teen with rare disorder incapable of making decisions about care despite begging to live

A UK court has ruled a 19-year-old critically ill female patient with a rare disorder cannot make her own decisions about continuing her medical care, as her family battles her doctors’ desire to stop treatment and pursue end-of-life care.

The teen, whose identity has been anonymized as “ST” by the court, has a rare genetic mitochondrial disease that is progressively degenerative, according to court documents. Her condition is similar to that of Charlie Gard, the infant whose story drew global headlines in 2017. Charlie’s parents lost a bid to bring him to the U.S. for an experimental treatment for his critical condition and he died after the hospital withdrew life-saving care after a months-long high profile legal battle.

Despite previously being a student studying for her A-levels (short for advanced levels), the 19-year-old girl has spent the past year in the ICU, dependent on a ventilator and a feeding tube. She requires regular dialysis due to chronic kidney damage from her disease. “ST” is currently fighting the hospital to be allowed to travel to Canada for an experimental treatment to treat her disease.  (Click to continue reading)

Full Article & Source:
UK court rules teen with rare disorder incapable of making decisions about care despite begging to live

Proposed Changes to Definition of Death Threaten Brain-Damaged Patients

BROOMALL, Pa., July 21, 2023—The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) and the National Catholic Partnership on Disability urge the Uniform Law Commission not to change its recommendation for the definition of brain death from the irreversible cessation of brain function to the permanent cessation of most brain activity. Such a change in policy would allow living patients with severe brain damage to be declared legally dead.

Under the proposed changes to the Uniform Determination of Death Act, whole brain death would be replaced with partial brain death. Consequently, nonresponsive patients with severe neurological injury could be declared brain dead even if they still exhibit some integrated brain function. Rather than improve the accuracy of clinical protocols, this change would bring them in line with current practices, which have been criticized for their lack of rigor and potential for abuse. Moreover, although motivated by a noble desire to save lives through organ donation, relaxing the existing standard of whole brain death involves an implicit judgment that doctors can violate the physical integrity of these vulnerable patients to benefit other patients whose lives are considered more worth saving.

 Patients with severe neurological injury cannot speak for themselves, and given the complexity of their conditions, it can be very difficult for their family and friends to effectively advocate on their behalf if they do not have medical expertise. Consequently, the medical and legal communities have a special duty to protect these patients by establishing adequate safeguards so that vital organs may not be procured prior to death or be the cause of the donor’s death. In this context, relaxing the criteria for declaring a person brain dead not only could dissuade people from becoming donors but also could have a disastrous effect on trust in the physician-patient relationship.

 To ensure that organ donation remains a selfless gift motivated by genuine love of neighbor, and to support a strong relationship of trust between patients and physicians, the standard for determining brain death must include the complete and irreversible cessation of integrated function in the whole brain. Commenting on the review process, NCBC Staff Ethicist Edward Furton said, “The Uniform Law Commission is about to affirm that current neurological criteria for determining death are too rigorous and need to be relaxed. Instead of calling for their more careful application, the lax standards are to be incorporated into the rule. This will result in the withdrawal of support from those who demand complete confidence that the patient has died before organs are donated.”

The National Catholic Bioethics Center provides education, guidance, and resources to the Church and society to uphold the dignity of the human person in health care and biomedical research, thereby sharing in the ministry of Jesus Christ and his Church. The NCBC envisions a world in which the integral understanding of the human person underlying Catholic teaching on respect for human life and dignity is better understood and more widely embraced in America and worldwide. More information can be found at ncbcenter.org.

###

Source:
Proposed Changes to Definition of Death Threaten Brain-Damaged Patients

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Gina – Advocate for Patients’ Right in Skilled Nursing Facilities

T_S_ Radio bannerGuest is: Gina – Advocate for patient rights in skilled nursing facility.

Will be discussing SB 1362 -Bill to Amend SS & SB 670 Nursing Home Litigation first half hour of show.

In 2010. Gina’s significant other of 21 years passed away from ovarian cancer and Gina wound up homeless and in great medical need. Gina went through several major surgeries then placed in a Skilled Nursing Facility where her life was saved. Gina was moved from one facility to the one she is in now from 2011.

Gina was appointed Vice President of the Residents Council then voted President of the Resident Council and found herself fighting the powers that be for the residents rights. She began studying the medicaid/medicare laws and rights provided for the residential care in these facilities.

Since then Gina have become increasingly aware of how the nursing homes target these elderly patients from the doctor to the judges that abuse the guardianship program for their own gain. Gina’s intention is to spend the rest of her life helping those targeted by these guardian programs that allow doctors to claim someone incapacitated, and lawyers that go behind the backs of friends and family and judges that grant for profit guardianship and complete control over others lives without telling them.

2015- June. Gina read Marisa Conover’s story regarding her mother and reached out to her. She then hooked me up with TS radio. Marti Oakley and Debbie Dahmer had Gina as one of the Guests on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day -June 15th, 2015 On TS Radio.

5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST

LISTEN TO THE SHOW LIVE or listen to the archive later