Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts intends to investigate the decision by the MA Supreme Court to permit the public guardian to remove the feeding tube from a 12-year-old abuse victim named Haleigh Poutre. She is now, apparently, reacting to her environment (not that I believe reactivity should be a requirement to receive food and water).
And let there be no complaints by those who believe cognitively disabled people should be dehydrated, about the “state” imposing its views on family. This was a decision pushed by the state through a public guardian, and approved by a court.
By all means: Investigate. And let us hope that the conclusion is reached that food and water should not be removed from people based solely on “quality” of life considerations in the wake of a catastrophic brain injury.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…
