Help save Andrea Clarke

Read this post written by John Hawkins (more here) to learn more about Andrea Clarke.

This case will bring to mind the sad story of Terri Schiavo, but there are several differences in this one: 1) she is a widower and her family wants her to live and 2) a hospital ethics committee has decided that Clarke’s treatment (respirator and dialysis) should be discontinued.

See Jason Smith’s post to find out how you can help save Andrea Clarke.

17 Responses to "Help save Andrea Clarke"

stackja1945 says:

April 25, 2006 at 8:51 am

According to the Left idea of things, Andrea Clarke is not worth the effort. One day it will be easier for the Left when the endeavours of others such as John Hawkins are no longer effective.
steve says:

April 25, 2006 at 9:48 am

Ain’t capitalism a bit(h? Everything is about making a buck and to he1l with people. If the system was moral this wouldn’t even be a discussion. The lady would go to the hospital and when nothing more could be done she would go to either a long-term care facility or home if that is do-able. Of course that would force us to put into place a acessable, affordable, single-payer, universal health care program. But, you greedy capitalists force everything into a cost/benifit ratio, don’t you? Peace
PCD says:

April 25, 2006 at 9:58 am

No, steve(FN), it is greedy, lazy leaches like yourself who figure they ought to be given their every whim in life and not work for it. You’d make someone else work for what you got, but that doesn’t bother you, and you wouldn’t work for them. Worker’s paradise my rear end. Your ideas of utopoia are a spoiled brat’s demands without realization of what it takes to provide it.

Because you have no other way of getting what you want, you condescend, call names, belittle and run away calling “Peace” over your shoulder so that you don’t get the treatment you richly deserve. In the old days that treatment would be a coating of tar and feathers with a ride to the city limits on a wooden rail guaranteed to put slivers in the area of your body YOU think with.
Jim M says:

April 25, 2006 at 11:32 am

Only a person like Steve(fn) would take the opportunity to push his Socialist/Communist ideas when this family is in a fight to save their sisters life. You self-centered self-serving pinhead you like the idea of the Government controlling everything; you would love the idea of the Government confiscating everyone’s money and then redistributing it according to their need. That would be in best interests of the lazy, dropouts with no drive or work ethics wouldn’t it Steve(fn) because you would get paid the same no matter how much or how little you work if any at all. In stead of a society where if you work hard and put off self-gratification so that later in life you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, you want a society that people like you don’t have to work hard or save or think about your future someone else will take care of it for you. Let me break the news to you Steve(fn) universal or Government Health Care doesn’t work there are several examples around the world quit being so lazy and do some research try Canada or France. In fact since you hate Capitalism whey don’t you move to oh say France they are a Socialist haven and don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out. How you could think that someone else or other people owe you something is just astounding let me break it to you gently NO BODY OWES YOU ANYTHING!!!! You define Greed as someone that just wants to keep the money they earned and just because there are people that earn more than you, you are jealous period.
Svaha The Crone says:

April 25, 2006 at 12:39 pm

Please be aware that what the hospital ethics committe says about futile care is absolutely correct. This was signed into law by the then Gov of Texas, now President, George W Bush. Yes, the same President Bush who rushed back from vacation to “save” Mrs Schiavo. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it.
euphoricreality.net says:

April 25, 2006 at 12:45 pm

Another Life “Not Worth Living”

“Misery can only be removed from the world by painless extermination of the miserable.”
—a Nazi writer quoted by Robert J. Lifton in The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide
Here in Houston, a woman has been scheduled to …
Sister Toldjah says:

April 25, 2006 at 12:54 pm

No, I don’t wonder about it at all:

Via KLo at NRO 3/20/05:

KLO: But according to a source familiar with what went down in Texas, the then-governor signed into law the best bill he could get at the time, improving an already bad situation. Here’s some background explained:

In August 1996 the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article describing procedures then in effect in Houston hospitals. Under these procedures, if a doctor wished to deny a patient lifesaving medical treatment and the patient or the patient’s surrogate instead steadfastly expressed a desire for life, the doctor would submit the case to the hospital ethics committee. The patient or surrogate would be given 72 hours notice of the committee meeting would be allowed to plead for the patient’s life at it. During that short 72 hour period, the patient or surrogate, while preparing to argue for life, could also try to find another health care provider willing to give the lifesaving treatment, food or fluids.

If the ethics committee decided for death, under these procedures there was no appeal. There was no provision that the food, fluids, or lifesaving treatment be provided after the decision while the patient or family tried to find another hospital willing to keep the patient alive.

So under these procedures, the hospitals in Houston were denying life-saving treatment, food and fluids against the wishes of patients and their families, when the hospital ethics committees said their quality of life was too poor. Patients and families were being given only 72 hours after being notified of the proposed denial to find another health care provider.

In 1997 there was an advance directives bill going through the Texas legislature that would have given specific legal sanction to such involuntary denial of life-saving treatment. An effort in the Texas legislature to amend the bill to require treatment pending transfer to a health care provider willing to provide the life-saving treatment had been defeated. When that bill reached Governor George Bush’s desk, he vetoed it, and said he was vetoing it precisely because it authorized hospitals to deny lifesaving medical treatment, food, and fluids against the will of the patients.

But even without that bill, these procedures were still going on. So there was an effort in the next sitting of the legislature, in 1999, to pass protective legislation. Unfortunately, the votes just weren’t there to require lifesaving treatment, food, or fluids be provided by unwilling hospitals. So there were negotiations that resulted in a bill that gave partial protection. That 1999 bill:

first, formalized more protections for in-hospital review
second, gave patients 10 days of treatment while seeking transfer, and
third, authorized court proceedings to extend the 10 days for reasonable additional periods to accomplish transfer.

Now this was not what patient advocates wanted and it wasn’t what Governor Bush wanted. However, it was an important advance over the existing situation of no legal requirement of treatment pending transfer, for any period of time. The votes were not there in the Texas legislature to accomplish a more protective bill. So Governor Bush signed it because it was an improvement over the existing law.
InAHeartBeat says:

April 25, 2006 at 2:10 pm

The barbaric death of Terri Schiavo is when I woke up and realized I did not measure the same as the Republican that I so staunchly thought I was.

No way do I fight the ideals of a nutcase Democrat with mental problems gone untreated.

I would take my sister home, it is their fascists law, no choice, but I would sue the grandchildren’s pants off of Blue Cross and every single individual complicit in her death.

Where the HELL is the ACLU….on this one. This law could be fought in court and WON. The ACLU is a crap org.
InAHeartBeat says:

April 25, 2006 at 2:14 pm

Or, the Sisters could move her out of state and she would be admitted, likely. South Carolina is a good choice. That would work as well.

The Republicans are finished but that means I will have to move. I have no worthy party, anymore.
steve says:

April 25, 2006 at 3:12 pm

Your confusing me with the idle rich who inherited what they have and have no idea what a grocery store scanner is. Health care should be affordable and accessable just like food, housing, clothing and transportation. And this should all be done within the context of Peace. But, to blame this poor women’s possible death on a corrupt liberal society, is obnoxious and untrue. Peace
Big Bang Hunter says:

April 25, 2006 at 3:24 pm

– Somehow I don’t think “Grocery store scanner” will be listed as the cause of death on her certificate if shes forced/allowed to die Steve. But thats just a wild guess on my part.

– Bang
PCD says:

April 25, 2006 at 3:39 pm

Well, steve(FN), why don’t you get some of your idle rich cronies like Barbara Streisand, George Soros, The Kennedy family, the Kerry-Heinzes to fork over some dough to take care of the problem.

OBTW, nice slam at 41. Can you make an argument that isn’t another salvo of class-warfare?
InAHeartBeat says:

April 25, 2006 at 4:20 pm

Excuse me, the woman has Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance. The Insurance company does not want to pay anymore.

This is a prime example of how the Republican supporters will support the Devil himself. I was one the staunchest, I know. Edited – insult. –ST.

You are jumping all over Steve, the socialist, and you have NO idea what you are talking about. Like YOU, this WOMAN paid her health care premiums every month!

Edited – insult. –ST

The X Greedy republican 55 years of it!
InAHeartBeat says:

April 25, 2006 at 4:24 pm

PCS you make the republican party look like Nazi’s. We need to get rid of the likes of all of you that have destroyed this party out of their pathetic greed. It is difficult to remain civil to you. You are far out of the issues loop. Probably spend far too much time trashing people of message boards. That is called being a Troll.
Big Bang Hunter says:

April 25, 2006 at 5:06 pm

– IAHB – Excuse me if I differ with both sides on this. Its all to easy to start looking around for someone to demonize in these aggregiously difficult cases involving the life and death of our loved ones.

– I simply don’t think this is a case of right/left. I’d be more inclined to think its legalese/business/CYA driven. Hospitals/Doctors have far to cozy a relationship with Insurance companies/pharmecuticals in general. Its not neccessarily conspiratal, but more likely just as a part of doing business. I say that because you see a lot of CYA policies being instigated these days among all branches of the medical field, from ambulance services on up. Some of it is probably very justified; We’ve become a nation of litigators at the drop of a hangnail. Some of it is dysfunctional inneptitude on the part of duck and run politicians on both sides of the divide, who generally hate to get involved in emotion driven issues. In Terry’s case just look at the three ring circus and mess it caused in Congress, and to what good end. Nada. so you have many layers of emotion, proper and hysterical, CYA, legal, and business, swirling around this whole “right to life/right to die” embroligo.

– Maybe what is needed is a dispassionate third party advocacy group/cabinet office in every state of the Union, that takes the reins of this whole medical survival mess and acts as omnibudsmen and final arbitrator. As an Official body of State gov. they couldn’t be sued, nor would they depend on any one lobby group for any of their funding. I generally detest the very idea of yet another oversight group when dealing with difficult issues, but in this rare case maybe its the only way that both sides of the life and death question can get fair and balanced justice. Just a thought.

– Bang
steve says:

April 25, 2006 at 7:55 pm

How about we set up a society where the individual is respected and loved by all of it’s members? Then immoral arguments like who should live and who should die is not an issue based on one’s ability to pay. Peace
Big Bang Hunter says:

April 25, 2006 at 8:22 pm

– I wish we lived in a “perfect world” too. Fortunately, the majority of us go about the daily tasks of dealing with harsh reality, and leave the “tellytubby wishes” and dreaming to a few souls that just can’t cope.

– Bang

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