The Unwanted Patient

The deal to permit Andrea Clark to receive treatment in Illinois is off. The hospital there wasn’t a hospital, it was a nursing home, and so St. Luke’s cancelled the transfer. I am told, but don’t know, that this was because of a miscommunication about the seriousness of her illness.

But this is the bottom line: A catastrophically ill woman and her family want her life sustained and no hospital in the country appears willing to permit her have this care. Such is the place that the bioethics movement has taken the country.

P.S. I have been spelling Andrea’s last name incorrectly. It is Clark. No e at the end.