EuthaNEWSia (www.euthanewsia.ca)

The Catholic HealthCare Partnership of New Jersey and the New Jersey Hospital Association write an OpEd about the Betancourt case, in which they intervened:

[There is] a dilemma that is playing out in a New Jersey appellate court, where judges are being asked to determine whether physicians should be compelled to artificially sustain a dying person's life. The legal drama stems from a case at Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth where a team of physicians spent more than a year treating an unresponsive patient who was in a permanent vegetative state with multiple organ failure.

The patient could not breathe on his own, eat on his own or respond to outside stimuli. He was being kept alive purely through science. Five different physicians agreed that there was no hope for his condition to improve and that the requested treatment - kidney dialysis - would not change that outcome. But the patient had not stated his end-of-life preferences ahead of time, and his family ordered the life-sustaining treatments to continue indefinitely.

It's a gut-wrenching case, and our hearts go out to the family in this case and all families that endure the difficult process of a loved one's death. The unsettling questions this case raises will only continue as our population ages and medical science advances.

That's why our organizations - the Catholic HealthCare Partnership of New Jersey and the New Jersey Hospital Association - have joined this case. Representing a faith-based organization and a secular health care association, we respect both the sanctity of life and the health care mission of healing and caring. The question our society must confront is: Should health care professionals be required to use technology to prolong a dying patient's life when those interventions violate longstanding medical ethics and standards, while providing no relief or benefit to the patient?

[There is information in the Notes section below.]
[There are other related stories in the Links section below.]

To read the full article click on one of these links, both of which go to the same destination. A short link is provided for the convenience of readers. Also, readers may search and browse past and future advisories on the web (see bottom.)

Codey, Patricia, Elizabeth Ryan. "N.J. court has chance to influence compassionate end-of-life care". The Record. Saturday, May 29, 2010. <www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/95169044__A_step_toward_compassionate_end-of-life_care_.html>. NorthJersey.com, The Record, North Jersey Media Group, 1Garret Mountain Plaza, Woodland Park NJ, 07424, U.S.A.

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201006020167.
Mailed: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 14:42:31 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>.

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