!!!!
Nursing home won’t starve mother to death: family sues
- Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:35 ES
This is how far the culture of death has come.
I reported earlier about the controversy in Canada in which a family wants a nursing home to stop spoon feeding their mother because she would not want to be kept alive with Alzheimer’s. But no one has the right to be starved. They have the right to refuse medical treatment–for example when sustenance has to be provided by tube. But “artificial nutrition and hydration” may be medical treatment under the law–I would prefer it weren’t–but spoon feeding is humane care that should never be denied.
But don’t tell that to the family. They are suing because a nursing home refuses to starve their mother to death! From the Leader-Post story:
The actions of Abbotsford nursing home staff who are spoon-feeding an 82-year-old Alzheimer’s patient — contrary to the wishes she expressed in her living will — constitute battery, a lawsuit by her daughter and husband alleges. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court against Fraser Health, the nursing home and the provincial government, is expected to be precedent-setting as it should clarify end-of-life rights of patients and the obligations of health providers.
So, if a person wrote in their advance directive that they don’t want to be kept warm, should they be denied blankets? If they said they don’t want turning so they get bed sores and die sooner, should that be done? Or is the right to be made dead now sacrosanct?
If the family wins this case, the right to refuse medical treatment will become the right to be neglected to death. And what will happen to the nursing and medical professions if they are required to deny people the basics of life until death? Can you imagine the number of people that will quit the sector?
We don’t–and shouldn’t–have a right to force health care workers to make us dead. And we sure shouldn’t be able to order others to starve us when we willingly eat. Color me utterly disgusted.
Reprinted from Human Exceptionalism.
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Court Will Hear Case of Family Suing Nursing Home to Starve Mother to Death
by Euthanasia Prevention Coalition | Vancouver, Canada | LifeNews.com | 8/12/13 9:33 AM
An article in the Vancouver Sun reported on the family of Margaret Bentley (82) that have launched a lawsuit against Fraser Health and the BC government concerning the fact that Bentley is being spoon fed at the Maplewood Care Facility in Abbotsford BC against the wishes of the family and allegedly against the previously stated wishes of Bentley.
This court case will determine: whether or not feeding someone with a spoon is providing a “basic necessary of life” or whether it constitutes medical treatment that must be withheld upon request or it becomes an assault and battery?
Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recognizes that all Canadians have the right to have treatment withdrawn or withheld, but food and fluids provided by normal means, such as a spoon, constitutes basic care and not medical treatment.
This case will also determine whether or not someone, who signed a document years earlier, will have the right to change their mind. Schadenberg stated:
If Bentley, who willingly opens her mouth and swallows is denied food and fluids, that this is a denial of basic care. The article states that Bentley prefers desert, meaning that she enjoys food and she can distinguish between food types.
Schadenberg also stated that:
Withholding food and fluid from Bentley will cause her to intentionally die of dehydration, a death which is not compassionate or comfortable.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recognizes that:
Elder abuse is a growing problem in Canada, and giving health care providers and families the right to deny people basic care will only lead to new paths for abuse.
The article in the Vancouver Sun stated:
Spokespeople for the government and Fraser Health said late Tuesday they wouldn’t comment on the case since it’s now before the court. But previously, Fraser Health official Keith McBain said health care workers are “obligated to provide the necessities of life for patients … that includes food and fluids.”
Fraser Health contends that patients can refuse feeding tubes but spoon feeding is different and does not fall into the category of heroic or extraordinary life-saving measures. …
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| Margaret Bentley |
The article quotes an ethics consultation that was done for Fraser Health that determined:
“The risk of feeding her is minimal whereas the risk of not doing so means that death will be imminent. This death would be viewed as premature and so would constitute harm to Mrs. Bentley,”
“she didn’t want to be fed “nourishment or liquids” if she ever developed an incurable medical condition involving mental or physical disability. She said she wanted to be allowed to die.”
In the suit filed on behalf of Bentley, the plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaration that the feeding is akin to battery and that the facility is violating her Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The suit relies upon 18 other rules, regulations and statutes in a bid to prove that Bentley’s rights are being violated.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is discussing its response to the Bentley spoon feeding case. Clearly, feeding Bentley with a spoon is not akin to battery.
All people who require assisted feeding would be negatively impacted if the BC court declares that the provision of food and fluid, by spoon, constitutes battery.
Consider the effect that this court decision could have on cases such as the woman who wanted to end the lives of her disabled adult children, by euthanasia, that was featured on the Dr. Phil show on April 13, 2012.
If this case is successful, people will lose the right to change their mind.
ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP 
Wesley does not tell people that the palliative care people made sure that artificial nutrition and hydration were classified as medical treatment. He does not remind us that on March 20, 2004 JPII emphatically came down against the designation of ANH as medical treatment. Wesley, Alex S and others carefully refuse to criticize palliative care. Don’t know why. Prayers to the Holy Spirit and to St. Joseph, Betty
It is interesting that a recent study of comatose patients has discovered signs of higher consciousness in them. Imaging of their brains under MRI shows that their brains light up upon hearing their own names but not when hearing random names. If asked if they are in a grocery store, their brain does not respond much. But if asked if they are in a hospital, their brains light up. Comatose patients once thought to be completely unconscious show evidence of consciousness. Death, therefore does not necessarily coincide with what the utilitarian State “decides” in its “wisdom” is the moment of medical exodus.
There goes the neighborhood. We see families and patients victimized, when hospitals or doctors inflict passive euthanasia on those who cannot promote their rights. We see hospitals and doctors victimized by pro passive euthanasia families, when the morally proper course is taken and nutrition & hydration is given. Either way, the pro death people are gaining ground!