April 2006 Archives

From the North Country Gazette:

The life of Andrea Clark hangs precariously in the balance at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston.

The life support of the 54-year-old woman was to have been removed Sunday after the hospital ethics committee decided under the Texas Futile Care Law that it would be futile to prolong the life of the heart patient and recommended that she be removed from life support despite her family's wishes and the wishes of Andrea herself.

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030
Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000 Email

As a patient of St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston, TX, Andrea Clark is in an extremely precarious position. [Update: Please be sure to note the action item below.]

Andrea, 54, suffered complications following open heart surgery that left her dependent upon a ventilator and dialysis for survival. Although her motor control faculties were damaged, according to her family, her cognitive abilities were unaffected.

On April 19, St. Luke's informed Andrea's closest kin that her medical care would be discontinued in 10 days; an ethics committee decided to "pull the plug" in a flagrant act of (passive) euthanasia. Andrea has insurance and wants treatment. Her current doctor says “no”.

Through the efforts of many, the hospital and family developed a plan to transfer Andrea to a medical facility in Chicago, one suggested by St. Luke's. However, shortly before Andrea’s transfer was scheduled to take place it fell through; the second treatment center did not have the necessary means to care for her.

Now Andrea’s life hangs in the balance and at any time St. Luke’s could end her life by withholding treatment. A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday to discuss her fate and the possibility of another physician or facility, but there is nothing in writing.

Consequently, Andrea’s attorney, Jerri Lynn Ward, is serving St. Luke’s with a cease and desist order on Monday. Here is an electronic copy that was obtained by ProLifeBlogs:

Rose Mawhorter was viciously assaulted while protesting abortion across the street from Vancouver's most notorious abortion clinic. Although the story was covered by LifeSiteNews a few days after the April 7 incident, Rose has just released a video of the attack (warning - explicit language).

Prior to the attack Rose is seen holding a "choice" sign with her would be attacker standing in the background.

As the camera is panned back to Rose it captures the attacker tackling her and forcing her to the ground.

Rose is knocked to the ground and the female assailant grabs her sign and runs. Lifesite reports:

She threw the signs into the traffic and turned back to the scene of chaos she had left behind and began cursing and swearing at the people who were coming to assist Rose. The attacker continued this screaming and yelling until she was out of earshot of the group and then bolted across the road, running as fast as she could making a clean get away.

Pro-family and pro-life groups to lead protests at University of Pennsylvania symposium on euthanasia and Terri Schiavo's death.

A focus of the demonstrations will be emphasizing a national Zogby Poll taken right after Terri died showing 80% of the American public did not support the removal of the feeding tube.

The first protest will be on Sunday, April 30th, at 3:00 P.M., at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Research Building which is located at 421 Curie Blvd. in Philadelphia.

Several days ago we wrote about the case of Ms. Yenlang Vo, who like Andrea Clark, has been designated by her hospital for passive euthanasia:

Ms. Vo is in her 60's. She is a patient at St. David's North Austin Medical Center here in Austin, Texas. She has been diagnosed with persistent vegetative state--but that is disputed by the family. Ms. Vo's daugher, Loann Trihn, is an emergency room doctor and she disputes the diagnosis. Such a diagnosis is very subjective and involves clinical assessments. Dr. Trihn and her father have both witnessed her mother being responsive.

North Austin Medical Center had originally given Vo's family only until Saturday to find a place to take her because it was no longer willing to allow Vo to stay there.
Now they have until June 5 to transfer Vo to another medical facility or NAMC will stop providing Vo any life-sustaining medical treatment.

Frustrated about what is happening to Andrea Clark? Beth at MVRWC has complied a list of individuals who should be notified about her case and who can help. (Remember to contact St. Luke’s Episopal Hospital: 832-355-1000 as well). I'm going to reproduce her entire list below and hope that you will do the same - this needs to spread far and wide:

Senator John Cornyn
http://cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=contact&lid=1 (scroll down, there’s a form)

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison:
http://hutchison.senate.gov/e-mail.htm (scroll down)

They got involved with the Terri Schiavo case, after all.

Andrea's family has run into a significant problem with her transfer. There is apparently a question as to whether the level of care needed by Andrea can be provided by the IL facility. Please ask St. Luke's [832-355-1000 - more contact info] to give assurances that life-sustaining treatments will be provided to Andrea pending a transfer.

Update 1 (9:45pm EST): RightWingNews and MyVastRightWingConspiracy have the latest information - unfortunate news about Andrea Clark and St. Luke's Hospital. Before I go into the details, please contact the hospital (832-355-1000) and express your concern for Andrea's life and their treatment of her. Right now your polite but firm call may be the only chance she has.

I would suggest friends of Andrea and her family organize a protest outside the hospital - I'm sure you'll find plenty of blogs and readers who would be willing to help.

Update 2 (4/29/2006) - Melanie said her attorney is trying to get assurances (in writing) that St. Luke's won't disconnect Andrea from life support:

She said that they told her that they won't do it over the weekend. However, they have the right to disconnect Andrea, according to the law, on Sunday, April 30,
unless they agree to do otherwise in writing. This means that, at any moment, on Sunday, or afterwards, they can go up to Andrea's room and turn off her respirator, without notifying anyone of this decision, without her family by her side as she dies, without allowing anyone to say goodbye.

Something has got to be done about this.

ProLifeBlogs has a letter from Melanie Childers, Andrea Clarke's sister. I blogged about Andrea on Tuesday: She was being threatened with passive euthanasia by a Christian (in name only) hospital and an obscure Texas law about "futile" care.

Here's the most important part of the letter:

My family has made the decision to move our sister to the hospital in Chicago. Thank God there is someone willing to take her. And, really, it is best to get her out of Texas, because of the futile care law here.

St. Luke's played hardball with us on this issue. We were told that we could make the decision today and they would pay the entire amount of $14 thousand to move her, but if we made the decision tomorrow, they would only pay half of it, and if it were the day after tomorrow, they would pay nothing.

Now, how many more people need our help? Note the ominous warning at the beginning of Melanie's letter: "And, really, it is best to get her out of Texas, because of the futile care law here." How many more people like Andrea Clarke are being targetted for extermination by hopsital ethics committees?

A report from South Africa:

Ideally, The Termination of Pregnancy Act should be replaced by a Human Life Amendment Act that would protect the right to life of preborn babies. By God's grace we believe that this can and will happen. As we continue to fight for complete reform, we can also fight for reform that will curb the amount of abortions taking place.

Our country is faced with a plague of unwanted abortions - cases where mothers would rather carry their pregnancies to term but instead submit to unwanted abortions to satisfy the demands of others or because they feel they would have no financial and emotional support if they kept their baby. Most women seeking an abortion are not given a full explanation of their other options, nor of the possible risks of breast cancer, depression and difficulties in future pregnancies. American research shows that at least 70 percent of aborting women in America believe that what they are doing is morally wrong, or at least, 'deviant' behaviour. Thus many women are seeking abortions not because they believe it is the right thing to do, but because, given the pressures they face, they feel it is the only thing they can do.

From Seattle PI

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- The number of reported cases of legal euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide in the Netherlands increased in 2005 for the third year in a row, a Dutch agency said Thursday.

The figures released by the Regional Oversight Boards for Euthanasia showed doctors reported 1,933 cases in 2005, up from 1,886 in 2004 and 1,815 in 2003. Studies have estimated that reported cases represent slightly more than half of all euthanasias.

More at Marlowe's Shade

Update: Please pray that everything continues to go forward... I'll keep you informed as information is received.

Update 2 (5:18pm est): Andrea's family has run into a significant problem. There is apparently a question as to whether the level of care needed by Andrea can be provided by the IL facility. Please ask St. Luke's [832-355-1000 - more contact info] to give assurances that life-sustaining treatments will be provided to Andrea pending a transfer.

Update 3: The transfer fell apart - click here for the latest.

Original post below:

Melanie Childers wrote a thoughtful letter to you, all those who fought and prayed for the life of her sister, Andrea Clark:

My family has made the decision to move our sister to the hospital in Chicago. Thank God there is someone willing to take her. And, really, it is best to get her out of Texas, because of the futile care law here.

St. Luke's played hardball with us on this issue. We were told that we could make the decision today and they would pay the entire amount of $14 thousand to move her, but if we made the decision tomorrow, they would only pay half of it, and if it were the day after tomorrow, they would pay nothing.

As you know, I'm a Democrat, but one that is against abortion. I agree with the Republicans on that issue, at least. After this experience, though, I have to tell you: I am in absolute awe of the power that the right to life people generate. I, of course, first posted on Democratic Underground, and I have to give them some credit: they let my post stand against the rules about posting something like this under the wrong topic. They also let it stand, even though it had people's (my sister's and mine) personal numbers in it. And, of course, some people there forwarded it to other blogs. And everyone there was very supportive in their comments, as well.

But the pro-life people stepped forward and just absolutely ground St. Luke's into submission on this issue. You have, without a doubt, saved my sister's life. I want you to know that. Without the pro-life/right to life people stepping in from the very first of this fight for Andrea, we would have lost. I have never in my life seen such a centered, focused and energized group of people.

It's hard to believe that an ape would be seen as more valuable than an unborn child:

MADRID, April 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Amnesty International is shocked that the governing socialists in Spain have put forward legislation to grant great apes ‘human rights’. The same government which stripped from unborn human children the right to life and permits destructive research on human embryos, has put forward legislation to grant great apes the rights the rights to life, freedom and to not being tortured, according to a report by Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Read the rest

Wesley J. Smith exposes the actions of hospitals around the country — "nobody knows how many" — that have been quietly promulgating internal rules to permit patients to be denied wanted treatment to maintain their lives.

The bioethics committee at St. Luke's Hospital in Houston, Texas has decreed that Andrea Clarke should die. Indeed, after a closed-door hearing, it ordered all further medical efforts to sustain her life while at St. Luke's to cease. As a consequence, Clarke's life support, required because of a heart condition and bleeding on the brain, is to be removed unilaterally even though she is not unconscious and her family wants treatment to continue.

[snip]

Clarke's case involves value judgments rather than medical determinations. In such "qualitative futility" cases, treatment is stopped in spite of a patient's or family's objections — the intervention is necessary not because the treatment doesn't work, but because it does. In essence then, it is the patient's life that is deemed futile and, hence, not worthy of being preserved.

We should also note that the Clarke controversy isn't anything like the Terri Schiavo case. Schiavo's tube-supplied food and fluids were ordered withdrawn (supposedly) to carry out her wishes. But Clarke apparently wants to live and her family all agree that she should continue to be sustained. In other words, it is as if Michael Schiavo and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, agreed to maintain Terri's feeding tube but a hospital ethics committee overruled their decisions and doctors removed the tube anyway.

Earlier today, Jill wrote about the Northern Kentucky University professor and students that have been charged with misdemeanors related to the April 12 destruction of an pro-life display on campus. The Cincinnati Enquirer (HT: Michelle Malkin) reports more details.

In particular, Sally Jacobsen, formerly of the literature and language department (her name has already been removed from NKU’s website), has been charged with

... criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and criminal solicitation. The third charge relates to evidence that she encouraged students to participate in the destruction, County Attorney Justin Verst said

She had no idea there would be so much fallout, and she is sorry for the hurt she caused, Grubbs said.

"She never wanted to harm her university or her students at all," Grubbs said. "Twenty-seven years of her life have been at this university."

Jacobsen will plead not guilty, Grubbs said. Grubbs said the dismantling of the display doesn't amount to a criminal act.

"The intent was just an expression of freedom of speech," Grubbs said. "She saw harm coming from it, and she was just expressing her attitude towards the harm."

Weekly Standard | "We never say no." by Wesley J. Smith

Meanwhile, in the real world, the founder of the Swiss suicide facilitating organization Dignitas is just about done with pretense. The Sunday Times Magazine (London) reported that Dignitas' founder, Ludwig Minelli, plans to create sort of a Starbucks for suicide: a chain of death centers "to end the lives of people with illnesses and mental conditions such as chronic depression."

Minelli believes that all suicidal people should be given information about the best way to kill themselves, and, according to the Times story, "if they choose to die, they should be helped to do it properly." Dignitas admits to having assisted the suicides of many people who were not terminally ill. As Minelli succinctly put it, "We never say no."

The story about Minelli illuminates a deep ideological belief within the euthanasia movement: that we own our bodies, and thus, determining the time, manner, and method of our own deaths, for whatever reason, is a basic human right.

We broke the news that Andrea Clark's hospital is offering a deal that required her to be removed from their facility today. Ree-C Murphey (Lone Star Times) provides an update:

I have received an email from Andrea’s sister, Melanie, as well as talked with her on the phone.

I asked Melanie if the "deal" St. Luke’s offered in terms of paying for Andrea’s transportation to Illinois was correct. She wrote to me:

Yes, it’s true. We don’t want Andrea to be moved so far away from her family in Texas, but we are so frightened that another Texas hospital will start the futility process on her again, I think we have no other choice.

Think about that folks, the family is FRIGHTENED to have their sister in a Texas Hospital.

Illinois has successfully moved to the forefront of unethical and politically charged stem cell research, handing out $10 million to 10 research groups.

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD) expressed its disappointment today in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's decision to award grants to fund research that will include use of embryonic stem cells. While CBHD states the desire to heal people is certainly "laudable, good ends should not be pursued via unethical means."

"Human embryos are not potential human beings but human beings with potential," said CBHD President Dr. Andrew Fergusson. "Have we not yet learned that devaluing one group of human beings for the alleged benefit of others is a price we simply cannot afford to pay?"

Existing treatments that use umbilical cord-blood and bone marrow stem cells, which are ethically non- problematic, expose the fact that research requiring the destruction of human embryos is unnecessary for medical progress.

Related: Stem Cell Politics

ACTION REQUESTED

We've just received breaking news from a representative of the family of Andrea Clark about incredible and reprehensible actions underway by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas.

The family learned of a facility in Illinois that is willing to accept Andrea and offer her the opportunity to live, an expensive move that would require Andrea to be far removed from her family.

However, placing corporate greed ahead of all patient interests and the interests and wishes of the family, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital has just notified the family that they are willing to pay the almost $17,000 to move Andrea to Illinois if they will immediately - that's TODAY, move Andrea out of St. Lukes to the Illinois facility. If the family waits until tomorow to decide, St. Lukes will only pay half. And if the family can't make a decision by tomorow, the hospital may consider to pay absolutely nothing. In other words, the hospital is attempting to force Andrea out of the hospital in order to stop the financial drain of the cost of her care.

Meanwhile, the family is struggling to find a facility in Texas that will accept Andrea, who has insurance, but is being squeezed also by the insurance company. Is this fair?

The family needs time to make such a momentous decision, one that places their mother and sister far away from them and a patient that needs her family far removed from home. Although moving Andrea to Illinois is better than the alternative - essentially being euthanized by St. Lukes Hospital in Texas under an incredible law that encourages murder for profit, the family deserves time to descide.

As mentioned in our previous post, St Luke's website has the caption "Live More " on their banner and has the following description:

St. Luke's Episcopal Health System has a unique commitment to patient care. As a faith-based, non-profit organization, St. Luke's believes that true healing involves the body, mind and spirit. Our approach goes beyond religion, focusing on the healing aspects of spirituality and based on deeply held trust, love, caring, compassion, and respect for well-being and life.

In light of their history, their lead should be come to St. Luke's and other Texas hospitals to have your life turned off!

Urgent help is needed from bloggers and blog readers (contact hospital and redistribute this story through your email lists). Please, immediately contact the hospital by telephone and email, and advise them of your horror that a faith-based hospital that supposedly respects life would act so irresponsibly as to put dollars before a patients life, etc.... :

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030
Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000
Email

The family reports that the phone calls are working (via RWN) and the more the better. Do both telephone and email!

More to come - still breaking ...

Cross posted from Hyscience

The AP is reporting that the professor and six students who defaced pro-life crosses at Northern Kentucky University earlier this month have been charged with "criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and criminal solicitation."

The pro-abortion professor, Dr. Sally Jacobsen, has also been put on leave. She was caught red-handed (pardon the pun) by a staff member of NKU's student newspaper.

At the time, that news organization reported: "Northern Kentucky University President James Votruba has confirmed that Dr. Sally Jacobsen said that she encouraged students to practice their freedom of speech by pulling down the crosses during her British Literature class...."

(The vandalism photo is also posted on the aforementioned site.)

The good doctor has a sick view of the Constitution. Kudos to Northern Right to Life for pressing charges.

John Hawkings reports your calls are making a difference:

I spoke to Andrea's sister, Melanie Childers, again today to get an update on what's happening. To begin with, she said that a lot of pro-life people have been calling the hospital and she thinks it's having a real effect on them. She said that she hopes people keep it up. (The contact page for St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital is here. If you call, no matter how upset you may be, make sure to be polite).

Urgent help is needed from bloggers and blog readers. Please, immediately contact the hospital by telephone and email, and advise them of your horror that a faith-based hospital that supposedly respects life would act so irresponsibly as to put dollars before a patients life, etc.... :

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030
Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000
Email (more to be updated later)

KLFY reports the good news:

The Senate today approved a strict ban on abortion for Louisiana, rejecting a move to add any exceptions except to save the life of the mother.

Senator Ben Nevers spoke against an attempt to add exceptions for rape or incest victims. Nevers -- the bill's sponsor -- said his "heart goes out to them," but the importance of preventing abortions overrode such victims' wishes. Nevers of Bogalusa says a crime committed by a rapist should not result in the death of an unborn child.

The Senate rejected the exceptions with a 17-20 vote, then approved the measure with a vote of 30-to-7.

Yes, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle consistently opposes the sanctity of human life:

Brookfield, WI – Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Peggy Hamill issued the following statements about Gov. Doyle’s executive order to spend $5 million in tax dollars through the Dept. of Commerce to promote embryo-destructive research:

"The embryos on whom the Governor is promoting research are people – they have their own distinct DNA and if they were created naturally and not manipulated by scientists, they would gestate and grow up to look like you and me. They are our brothers and sisters.

Even experienced Right to Life attorneys find the case of Andrea Clark to be shocking. Your continued efforts on her behalf are much appreciated by Andrea's family.

However, Andrea is not the only person whose life is endanger. Jerri Lynn Ward (Texas Advanced Directives Blog) explains:

I represent Andrea Clark and the family. I came to represent the family because I signed up on the registry of health care providers and referral groups that have volunteered their readiness to consider assisting families in the situation where the present attending physician and hospital ethics committee decides to withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

As soon as I signed up, I got TWO cases. One involves Andrea Clark. Andrea's case has been getting media attention. Ms. Yenlang Vo's case has not. I would like for you to know about Ms. Vo's case.

Ms. Vo is in her 60's. She is a patient at St. David's North Austin Medical Center here in Austin, Texas. She has been diagnosed with persistent vegetative state--but that is disputed by the family. Ms. Vo's daugher, Loann Trihn, is an emergency room doctor and she disputes the diagnosis. Such a diagnosis is very subjective and involves clinical assessments. Dr. Trihn and her father have both witnessed her mother being responsive.

The attending physician wishes to withdraw dialysis, That is not acceptable to the family--and it against the express wishes of the patient expressed before she became unable to communicate. Ms. Vo needs a new shunt surgically implanted for her dialysis. She is receiving it by a different means at the present. The physician, apparently, does not believe that her state of life justifies the surgery.

I want to let readers of ProLifeBlogs know about a new series of articles that we've begun over at Generations for Life. As traffic on this new blog has increased, we've been encountering more and more of the myths about pro-lifers that so lamentably taint the public discourse on abortion.

While we consistently work on debunking the myths about abortion and the unborn child, we sometimes neglect the myths about pro-lifers themselves. On one level this is appropriate because we realize that this isn't about us—it's about the unborn babies and their mothers, the one threatened with death and the other with a life of regret, or worse.

But the widespread misunderstanding about pro-lifers and the pro-life movement sometimes makes us less effective. These myths make it all too easy to dismiss our arguments—in fact, that's part of the point. The pro-abortion movement is more than willing to make it all about us ignorant, hateful, intolerant, even violent pro-lifers, since they really have no rational response to the case against abortion.

I thought it was about time to address these myths one-by-one, beginning with an introductory article posted today. More to come soon at Generations for Life.

The following notice is from Jim Sedlak, president of Stop Planned Parenthood.

Click here to continue

Some weeks ago, I commented on a post that JivinJ had made about The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, a new book by Ramesh Ponnuru. A number of pro-choice bloggers were working themselves into a lather about the book's title, specifically about the supposed identification of the Democrats as the Party of Death (PoD, for short). Without anything other than the book's title, I thought these complaints showed poor reading comprehension. More importantly, I thought that people should be willing to wait until the book was available before presuming to criticize it.

To my surprise, Ramesh read my post and offered me a copy of his book. I love books; how could I refuse? For the attentive readers, this marks the very first tangible reward that I have received for my blogging. For the suspicious readers, I will point out that the book was offered with no strings attached. I made no promises of a glowing review or anything else. I simply told Ramesh that I would read the book and probably blog something about it.

Well, I've now read the book, and I can say two things:

1. The Democrats aren't the PoD, but rather a wholly-owned subsidiary thereof.


2. This book deserves a glowing review, which I am now going to write.

My WND column today focuses on a recent article in the New York Times, which attempted to connect the U.S. trend toward criminalizing various aspects of abortion to a Salvadorian ban on all abortions that includes prosecuting aborting mothers.

The reason for the NYTimes piece was clear: to frighten U.S. women that "forensic vagina inspectors," as they are called in El Salvador, may soon come pounding on their doors.

But is there any correlation whatsoever? If not, how can American pro-lifers say abortion is murder but not wish to prosecute aborting women?

Read my column, "Coming to America: forensic vagina inspections," today at WorldNetDaily.com.

[Photo courtesy of the NY Times.]

LifeNews reports:

While embryonic stem cell research flounders after an international scandal revealed years of supposed progress were fabricated by South Korean researchers, the use of adult stem cells continues to advance. The less controversial cells have already produced dozens of treatments for diseases and various conditions.

In the latest experiments involving adult stem cells, cardiologists at Rush Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory in Illinois and 15 other centers across the country are hoping that transplanted stem cells can regenerate damaged heart muscle in those who experience a first heart attack.

... of abortion.

Certainly one can pray to end abortion from her own room or at church, but there is something powerful about actually being at an abortion clinic. It will have a profound impact on one’s attitude about abortion. It creates compassion for the women choosing abortion and it brings to light the fact that real women are having abortions and real babies are dying.

--Generations for Life

Andrea Clark's sister, Melanie Childers, writes:

Imagine that you are sick and so you make sure that you are covered by really good health insurance. Your everyday life is a regimen of taking your medications, taking care of your young son, and keeping your appointements with your doctor. You're not real sophisticated about health insurance, but you know that your health has never been good, because of your heart, so you spend what little extra you've got on supplemental insurance policies, because you really need to be sure that, if you get sicker, you've got the coverage to take care of yourself. After all, you're alone in the world, just you and your young son.

So...you do get sick. You have to go into the hospital. The news is not good: Your heart has some damaged valves which have to be repaired and replaced and you have almost no chance of surviving the surgery. But, if you don't undergo the surgery, you have no chance at all of surviving. And, you've got insurance. You've got good doctors.

From TexasSparkle:

Andrea is sedated now with pain medication, but when she is not she communicates well to her sister. Lanore said the last time Andrea was awake Lanore read her lips and Andrea said, "I miss you."

I asked Lanore why she thinks the Doctors decided that Andrea should be taken off life support. She said "You know Anrdea has many friends and is part of about a dozen online crochet groups. She loves crafts. But to someone who downhill skis I suppose that doesn't look too exciting. I think the Doctors think her life sucks."

It all comes down to that in life issues, doesn't it? One person decides another person's life "sucks." And that is that. Is this what we are coming to? Stand up for the value of life. Call St. Luke and let them know how you feel.

The number is 832-355-1000

The Terri Schindler Schiavo, Center for Health Care Ethics Inc., Throws Support Behind Family of Andrea Clark

Houston’s St. Luke’s Hospital is giving the family of Andrea Clark until April 30th to find another facility to take Clark as a patient or doctors, under direction of an ethics committee, will remove her from life support.

Clark, who underwent open-heart surgery in January and then developed bleeding on the brain in February, is NOT brain dead and is NOT in a coma. According to her family Clark has also expressed her wish to live.

Last night (more here) we posted on the incredible application of a Texas law by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas to use their "ethics" (sic) committee to essentially committ murder. The situation is critical and requires an all-out no-stops media blitz. Until a few days ago, when the physicians decided to increase her pain medication and anesthetize her into unconsciousness, Andrea was fully able to make her own medical decisions and had decided that she wanted life saving treatment until she dies naturally.

Urgent help is needed from bloggers and blog readers. Please, immediately contact the hospital by telephone and email, and advise them of your horror that a faith-based hospital that supposedly respects life would act so irresponsibly as to put dollars before a patients life, etc.... :

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030
Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000
Email (more to be updated later)

St. Luke's Episcopal Health System has a unique commitment to patient care. As a faith-based, non-profit organization, St. Luke's believes that true healing involves the body, mind and spirit. Our approach goes beyond religion, focusing on the healing aspects of spirituality and based on deeply held trust, love, caring, compassion, and respect for well-being and life.

In light of their history, their lead should be come to St. Luke's and other Texas hospitals to have your life turned off!

While bloggers and readers join in Andrea's plight to survive the death sentence by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital's Ethics Committee, her story is begining to gain more attention. Today at WorldNetDaily is carrying the story:

[...] An ill woman in Houston could die within days because a hospital ethics committee has voted to take her off life support - this despite the fact the 54-year-old is not in a coma, is not brain dead and wants to go on living, her family says.

On April 30, Andrea Clark is scheduled to be on the receiving end of a Texas law that allows a hospital ethics committee to terminate care with 10 days' notice, giving the patient's family that length of time to find a different facility.

"They just say, 'Well she's miserable.' Well, to me that's a quality of life decision that is up to her and her family," Lanore Dixon told KHOU-TV. "That is not a medical decision."

Dixon recently protested at the St. Luke's Hospital on behalf of Clark, her sister, who has been hospitalized there since November.

In January, Clark underwent open-heart surgery and later developed bleeding on the brain. A ventilator, which the committee voted to remove Sunday, helps her breath.

Talking about the Texas law, Dixon told KHOU: ""If their ethics committee makes a decision, it doesn't matter what the patient wants. It doesn't even apparently matter what the patient's condition is, because our sister is not in a coma; she's not brain dead."