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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (13927)	10/26/2003 2:43:53 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793624

I am inclined to the position that pulling the plug should only be done when the patient is already in the process of dying, not to initiate the process of dying. That's not what the statutes say, at least not in Virginia. In Virginia, the family or any other interested person can petition the court that food and water be withdrawn from a person who is in a persistent vegetative state, even though that person is otherwise stable and not likely to die at any time in the foreseeable future. In Virginia, and I assume that this is from a model act adopted nationwide, persistent vegetative states are defined as terminal conditions, even though it's clear in some cases that they really aren't. So I guess what I'd like to see done is for the statutes to be amended, and that absent a clear directive from the patient, a stable persistent vegetative state in an otherwise healthy person not be classified as a terminal condition.