Rank Hypocrisy

After the shameful circus that was the Terri Schiavo incident, a family in Texas is facing a similar situation. Actually, Andrea Clark, patient at St. Luke's Hospital, Huston, faces something a little different... From the North Country Gazette:

No, she's not terminal, her family says and she's not brain dead. Her sisters say that she wants to live. The Houston hospital is going to unilaterally remove a woman from life support, apparently based on the decision of a lone physician even though her family wants her to continue to receive care.

The central issue in the Andrea Clark case is the same as that in the Terri Schindler Schiavo case, whether the state should be able to sanction the removal of a human being from life support.

What's even more significant in the Clark case is that the Texas bill that allows health care providers to end a human life despite the wishes of the patient and the patient's family was signed into law in 1999 by President George W. Bush as Texas Governor.

What's that? Bush signed a law that allowed insurance companies to get out of paying for something which is expensive when they decide it's going to cut into their profits? Shocking! Wait! That includes life support. He signed a law that meant that an Insurance Company can decide when life is over but flew to Washington to make sure that a spouse couldn't? Family Values^tm strikes again.

George W. Bush Andrea Clark Terri Schiavo