Friday, March 16, 2007
ANOTHER CATHOLIC TREATED BADLY BY RIGHT-TO-LIFE DECISIONS
I was as much a supporter of Terri Schiavo's right to live as I am of this woman's right not to.
A bedridden Spanish woman who suffered from muscular dystrophy for more than twenty years has died at her own request after she was transferred from a Catholic to a state hospital where her respirator was switched off.
The West Australian reports that Immaculada Echeverria, 51, from the southern city of Granada, won her right to end her life under a law which grants the right to refuse treatment.
She died on Thursday morning Australian time after her life support was switched off, the regional department of Andalucia said.
Echevarria had progressive muscular dystrophy and had been on a respirator for the past ten years. She had fell sick at age 11 and for the last 20 years she had been in a hospital bed.
Continue reading...
Look at the picture of this woman in the iron lung. If this isn't an example of medical intervention that is burdensome, I don't know what is. There is no hope for her to get better. There is only this existence and death. Switching off the iron lung at the patient's request is not the same thing as we saw happen with Terri Schiavo. A person should have the right to make this decision.
