Subject: Schiavo's kin join Poutre debate

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The Boston Globe


Schiavo's kin join Poutre debate


Urge tighter rules in end-of-life cases

By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | April 25, 2006

The family of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged
Florida woman at the heart of a divisive
right-to-die case that ended with her death last
year, is urging Governor Mitt Romney to tighten
regulations of end-of-life cases in Massachusetts.
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Schiavo's family, which runs the Terri Schindler
Schiavo Foundation Center for Health Care Ethics
Inc., is alarmed that doctors misread the medical
condition of 12-year-old Haleigh Poutre, a
Westfield girl who authorities say was beaten
into a coma by her adoptive parents. State
authorities, believing she was in a permanent
vegetative state, were close to removing
Haleigh's life support before her condition began improving earlier this year.

The foundation made a number of recommendations
in a letter to Romney last week, including that
Massachusetts open end-of-life proceedings to the
public, increase the standard of evidence
required to remove life support in certain
instances, and establish judicial panels to hear such cases.

''Haleigh's shocking story demonstrates that much
more needs to be done to protect the sick and
disabled from harm, including harm imposed by
courts," the letter reads. ''The common sense
reforms outlined herein will help to provide the
most vulnerable among us with better protection
in the legal system. The Foundation respectfully
requests that the Commonwealth immediately
address the law to provide Haleigh Poutre and
other children like her with greater protections."

Schiavo's case became a flashpoint for
conservatives, who rallied behind bids by her
parents and siblings to fight her husband's
effort to remove her feeding tube. Romney's
actions in Haleigh's case could be watched
closely if he decides to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

''We are happy to review the letter," Romney
spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said in an e-mail.

An independent panel appointed by Romney
recommended a series of changes last month on how
the state handles such cases, including that DSS
more closely scrutinize requests to withdraw life
support. Romney accepted the recommendations.

Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, said in an
interview yesterday that this was the first time
the foundation has gotten involved in another
case to this extent. ''Basically we saw how the
case was being handled, and we're very concerned
with some of the things that were happening in
her case," said Schindler, who plans to speak
about the issue in Agawam next month. ''This kind
of goes at what we've been saying: Doctors are
oftentimes wrong with these diagnoses that they
are making, and it becomes a death sentence for these people."

Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the
hospital whose doctors concluded Haleigh was in
an irreversible coma, has defended its work and
said that the ultimate decision about her fate
fell with the state Department of Social
Services, which has had custody of the girl.
Haleigh has been recovering at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.

Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler Sr., said in an
interview that there are similar cases elsewhere
in the country, and the foundation's goal is
''essentially to guard against this rush to judgment."

''It's almost a ticket to the gas chamber," he
said of a doctor's diagnosis that someone is in a permanent vegetative state.

Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 after her
heart stopped from a chemical imbalance, possibly
caused by an eating disorder. She was on life
support for 15 years before dying in March 2005
at age 41, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

Schiavo did not designate in writing anyone to
make decisions for her. Her parents fought a
legal battle with her husband, Michael, who said
it would have been her wish to remove the feeding tube.

Scott Helman can be reached at <mailto:shelman@...>shelman@....
[]

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.


Cheryl Eckstein
Founder President Compassionate Healthcare Network (CHN)
CHN is a not for profit organization, formed 1990.
CHN - 11563 Bailey Cres., Surrey, B.C.
V3V 2V4 Canada
Phone - 604 582 3844
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QUOTES " Health care is concerned with life and
should never have anything to do with hastening
or causing death. . . . "Each person is special,
unique and unrepeatable. . . Excision of the
heart or liver from a living human being causes
death. Therefore, it is immoral to remove an
unpaired vital organ before death. Moreover, it
is currently not possible to successfully
transplant an unpaired vital organ after
death. To satisfy a desire for transplantable
organs, an ingenious method was devised to get
around these realities: certain living comatose
patients were simply defined as "brain dead." . .
. We have been forced to accept brain-related
criteria for death so that organ transplant teams
can obtain vital organs in good physiological
condition because an unpaired vital organ taken
from a true corpse is not suitable for
transplantation. " - LIFE, LIFE SUPPORT and DEATH
Principles,Guidelines, Policies and Procedures
for Making Decisions to Protect and Preserve
Life, (Second Revised Edition) by Paul A. Byrne
M.D., FAAP, et al., American Life League Inc.
------- End of forwarded message -------

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