Friday, January 31, 2014

When Lawmakers Are Allowed to Embed Their Political Agendas Into Healthcare Laws ...


Marlise Munoz (who is callously being referred to as a 'brain-dead pregnant woman') has finally been allowed to die peacefully. After suffering a tragic event several weeks ago that left her on a ventilator with no signs of brain activity, she was declared to be in a "brain-dead" state by her doctors. Adding to her misfortune was the fact that she was 14 weeks pregnant when she died, which prompted the hospital treating her to deny the family’s request to stop mechanical ventilation as Section 166.049 of the Texas Advance Directives Act states, “A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient.”

Representatives from Texas’ John Peter Smith Hospital, where Marlise was brought by paramedics after being found unresponsive by her husband, chose to ignore the fact that the fetus had no chance of reaching viability, and an article by NPR summarizes the hospital’s probable reasoning in allowing the family to suffer the consequences of watching their already-deceased loved one being mechanically maintained for several weeks.

“The doctors and the hospital explained that it didn't matter what Marlise or her husband or anyone else wanted — their hands were tied. She would stay on the ventilator until her 14-week-old fetus was delivered or died.

The law protects the hospital from all liability as long as it keeps the pregnant patient on life support. It doesn't actually forbid the hospital to remove support, but the hospital loses its legal immunity if it does. And that seemed to be the guiding light for the lawyers representing John Peter Smith Hospital.”
It took a lawsuit from Marlise's husband for "cruel and unusual mutilation of a corpse" (his beloved wife) for a judge to finally order the hospital to stop treating her as if she was still alive. In court, the hospital also acknowledged that the fetus was not viable and had been deprived of oxygen for one hour on the day Marlise Munoz died. 


When politicians, judges, religious spokespersons, anti-choice advocates, and protestors are allowed to interfere with the actions of medical professionals or dictate the provisions of health care laws, it opens the door for medical mismanagement and the prolonged suffering of sick people and their loved ones. Healthcare decisions must be made by healthcare professionals in order for the medical system to work in favor of patients. 

When lawmakers are allowed to embed their reproductive beliefs and political agendas into legal documents, such as the one hidden in the Texas Advance Directives Act, it allows pregnant women to be treated as non-entities whose sole purpose is to house, incubate, and maintain the fetus within them. It invisibilizes women to a level that makes them inhuman and unworthy of consideration as a person who is separate from their fetus. It also allows a fetus to always and without question take precedence over the woman whose body it is attached to.

My thoughts go out to the Munoz family as they grieve the loss of their loved one and recover from the trauma of fighting in court for the right to let Marlise die in peace.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Pete Seeger

I reluctantly admit that I spent more than half my life singing Pete Seeger songs, but didn't know who Pete Seeger was. By my mid 30s, I finally paid some long overdue attention to the social activist, political hero, environmentalist, anti-war protestor, fighter for justice, voice of marginalized people, and McCarthy Era blacklistee who died at the age of 94 on Monday, January 27, 2014.

Friday, January 24, 2014

MSNBC - You Gotta Be Kiddin'


What is wrong with MSNBC? They think Justin Bieber is more important that a discussion of NSA spying and our right to privacy? I feel sorry for Andrea Mitchell - just doin' what TPTB tell her to do when she interrupted a real discussion to show "breaking news" about Bieber being arrested.


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Death Penalty


The death penalty always brings up unanswerable questions – for me, anyway.

If it was my loved one who was tortured/abused/murdered/left to suffer/dead at the hands of another person, would I have any care or concern for the safety/well-being/comfort of the person found guilty of the crime?

Probably not.

Would I lose sleep at night wondering if the conviction was wrong and the person convicted was innocent?

Probably not.  

And if my loved one was the murderer/torturer/sociopath who committed vile acts against another person, would I have compassion and concern for how they were treated, despite the crime they committed?

Probably.

Would I forever wonder if they were really innocent of the crime they were convicted of?

Probably.

An Ohio inmate was recently executed by lethal injection with a new drug combination that, it seems, took 25 minutes to actually end his life. Newspaper reports describe his clenched fists, gasping respirations and heaving abdomen while he was dying. This serves as proof for many as a cruel way to die … a legal murder that took longer than it should. His family (who I also consider victims) stood by and watched the person they love, in spite of his conviction for the rape and murder of a woman, endure prolonged suffering while the state put him to death.

Discussions of Eighth Amendment violations (no cruel and unusual punishment allowed in civilized society) have begun, and law suits will, no doubt, soon emerge.

As with all social, moral, ethical issues, people are divided. I have read comments ranging from calls for the justice system to never let this happen again, to zero empathy for the inmate, to remembrance of the murder victim, to calls to end the death penalty once and for all.

I guess I’m wimping out on making a real decision about how I stand on this one. 

The billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry has perfected death penalty drug cocktails that can kill people instantly but, ironically, European drug sales of these amazing kill-you-instantly lethal injections is being blocked because of pressure from groups opposed to the death penalty. (This suggestion that drug companies are letting protestors dictate the sale of lethal injection drugs and, in effect, their bottom line seems odd to me, but I honestly have no in-depth knowledge of this).  

This whole situation seems lose-lose for everyone.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Midnight Plus A Minute

Happy New Year from me and Darryl.