Parents Fight Hospital’s Attempt to Remove Baby’s Ventilator Without Their Consent
A hospital in northern Texas might remove a one-month-old girl’s oscillator, against her parents’ wishes, even though her treatment is working, according to Texas Right to Life.
The pro-life organization is urging people to pray for baby Wren, whose life hangs in the balance as a hospital committee was set to weigh in an April 16 meeting whether to side with the hospital or the parents.
“If the hospital does not want to continue treating her, they shouldn’t cut her life short,” wrote Texas Right to Life’s Miranda Willborg, who was set to attend the committee meeting April 16. “Instead, they should honor her parents’ wishes and send her to a different place willing to care for her.”
Wren experienced complications after birth and was put on an infant-specific ventilator called an oscillator. Her parents want to transfer her to a hospital willing to continue Wren’s treatment, but the transfer requires a tracheostomy and feeding tube, according to an April 11 Texas Right to Life report.
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The hospital where Wren is now says it is unable to perform these procedures, according to Texas Right to Life.
The hospital is legally able to remove Wren’s oscillator because of Texas’ 25-Day Rule, a 1999 statute that gives a partial hospital committee the “authority” to withdraw treatment, even life-sustaining treatment, for any reason including the subjective measuring of “quality of life,” according to the pro-life organization.
“Even if the patient is conscious, coherent, and actively requesting the continuation of life-sustaining treatment, the 25-Day Rule gives the hospital the power to overrule the patient’s wishes,” the organization explains. “The alarming provisions under the 25-Day Rule have been accurately described by people across the political spectrum as ‘death panels.’”
The rule gives the patient and related guardians 25 days to find and arrange an emergency transfer to another hospital willing to provide treatment. This is often a complex process and difficult to arrange.
Texas Right to Life has asked for prayers for healing for Wren, safety for her attorneys and advocates, the hospital and physicians’ hearts to be turned in favor of life, another hospital to be willing to treat Wren, and for peace for Wren’s family.
“As we enter the Easter season,” the April 11 report reads, “we are reminded that all Life is a gift from God, treasured and valued by Him.”
LifeNews Note: McKenna Snow writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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