LIFE DIGEST: Man aware during 23-year ‘coma’
- Nov 24, 2009 - 1 -
The case of a Belgian man diagnosed as comatose for 23 years but conscious the entire time illustrates the need to treat such patients with dignity, a pro-life, bioethics specialist said.
A recently released scientific paper reported on Rom Houben, who was paralyzed in a car accident in 1983 and determined to be in a coma or persistent vegetative state (PVS), according to the Daily Mail. A re-evaluation three years ago by neurological expert Steven Laureys found Houben was aware of what was happening around him but had no control of his body.
Also in this edition: Baltimore council zeroes in on pregnancy help centers, Knoxville hospital agrees to continue care of 9 month old, Australian changes mind, stops euthanasia bill, and Louisiana centers receive $64,000 from Choose life license fund.
“Medical advances caught up with him,” Laureys said, the British newspaper reported.
Houben, 46, said of his awareness and yet his inability to communicate, “I screamed, but there was nothing to hear.
“All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life,” Houben said. “Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt.”
Although Houben may never leave the hospital, he is able to tap out messages on a computer and to read books while lying down, thanks to a special device over his bed.
“I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me – it was my second birth,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
“I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.”
Laureys, who led the use of high-tech imaging at the University of Liege to determine Houben’s brain was still functioning, said there may be similar situations around the world. A university study of 44 patients diagnosed by normal procedures as being in a vegetative state showed 18 were at least partly conscious and four ultimately came out of their “comas,” according to Agence France Presse.
Pro-life bioethics expert Wesley Smith said on his weblog, “Houben is here today only because he wasn’t dehydrated to death. There is no doubt he went through a horrendous experience, but thanks to treating him as a fully equal human being by caring for him all those years and giving him tests late into his disability – explicitly refused to Terri Schiavo – he is here today to tell [his] tale and live the rest of his life.
“And for goodness sake, whatever you believe about these issues, don’t talk in the presence of PVS or other apparently unconscious patients as if they aren’t there,” Smith said. “Rather, always treat such people as if they can hear you, because sometimes they can.”
Schiavo was the 41-year-old Florida woman who received a PVS diagnosis and died in 2005 when food and water were withheld from her at the request of her husband, Michael, and over the opposition of her parents after a lengthy legal battle.
Baltimore council zeroes in on pregnancy help centers
The Baltimore (Md.) City Council approved Nov. 23 a measure that will require pregnancy help centers to display signs saying they do not provide abortions or contraceptives or make referrals for the services.
The bill is believed to be the first of its kind passed by a legislative body.
The council approved the measure in a 12-3 vote over the opposition of the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, other pro-life advocates and the pregnancy centers. The bill now goes to Mayor Sheila Dixon, who has not indicated if she will sign it into law.
The measure would levy a fine of $150 a day for any pregnancy center that does not abide by the requirement.
Opponents criticized the proposal as inconsistent because it does not require abortion clinics to post signs indicating what services they do not provide. Many pro-life pregnancy help centers provide such free services as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, prenatal care, childbirth classes, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence education, post-abortion counseling and material assistance. Abortion clinics typically do not provide many of these services.
The city council voted 10-5 in its Nov. 16 meeting to defeat an amendment to expand similar requirements to abortion clinics, according to The Catholic Review, the archdiocese’s newspaper.
“I’m a firm believer that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” said council member Jack Young, who voted against the bill, The Baltimore Sun reported.
“If they’re going to ask the pregnancy centers to post a notice, they should ask Planned Parenthood, too.”
Planned Parenthood, which is the country’s No. 1 abortion provider, supported the bill, according to The Review.
Knoxville hospital agrees to continue care of 9 month old
The East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville agreed Nov. 23 not to withhold care from a nine-month-old boy after the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed an emergency motion in court in order to safe his life, the legal organization reported.
The hospital had started to withdraw treatment from Gabriel Palmer, and its ethics panel was expected to decide formally Nov. 23 to halt care, a physician told his mother, Catherine Palmer, according to ADF. The legal organization filed the motion the same day in a Knox County court to prevent the hospital from halting treatment, and the ethics committee agreed not to stop treatment.
Born prematurely with a genetic anomaly, Gabriel made good progress after going home in June, ADF reported. He was taken to the hospital in October with breathing problems. After treatment began, he went into shock, acquired a pulmonary vascular disease and was put on a respirator, according to ADF. Gabriel is in stable condition, and a doctor has said he could live “a long while,” ADF reported. He is alert and responsive when not under sedation, according to the organization.
“We are pleased at the ethics panel’s decision and look forward to full resolution in writing so that Baby Gabriel’s life will no longer be in danger,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman in a written release.
“A disability should not be a death sentence. No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is not worth saving.”
Australian changes mind, stops euthanasia bill
An Australian legislator defeated a bill to legalize voluntary euthanasia when he changed his vote for the sake of his conscience.
David Ridgway brought the measure down single-handedly, according to a Nov. 19 report by Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) News.
The legislation was expected to end in a 10-10 tie in the Parliament of South Australia. The Legislative Council’s president, Bob Sneath, likely would have broken the tie by voting for the measure.
Shortly before the vote, Ridgway, a member of the Liberal Party, told his fellow members he was withdrawing his support, resulting in an 11-9 defeat for the bill. He had reconsidered his vote after his mother’s death the previous week, Ridgway said.
“I don’t come to here with any great religious disposition as some members who are opposed to the bill or any other real position,” he said, according to ABC News.
“I just, at this point in time, don’t feel comfortable supporting the bill.
“There are some parts of it that . . . my conscience just won’t allow me to support . . . ,” he said.
Louisiana centers receive $64,000 from Choose life license fund
Each of 20 pregnancy help centers or adoption agencies in Louisiana received Nov. 18 an equal share of $64,421.20 from the state’s Choose Life license plate fund.
The fund now has distributed more than $104,000 to qualified agencies since its beginning in 1999. Court battles blocked the production and distribution of the plates for about five of the 10 years since their inception, according to the Louisiana Right to Life Educational Committee (LRLEC).
“Amidst many legal battles of the past 10 years, we are reminded today of the purpose of the plate: helping women and babies in need,” LRLEC Executive Director Benjamin Clapper said in a written release.
Each specially designed plate purchased results in $25 a year going into the Choose Life fund.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. Our free, downloadable Impact resource is also available online. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
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1 On Nov 25th, 2009, at 9:10am, Robert Warmath wrote:
A case like this is an instant indictment against the liberal judges and courts that ruled to execute Terri Schiavo in 2005. If Rom Houben was conscious while labeled to be in a “persistent vegetative state” for 23 years, it should be evident that such a “diagnosis” is unfounded and should never be made. Regardless of what medical practitioners and advocates claim, one needs only go one day without eating or drinking anything to know that withholding nutrition and hydration is not painless, but execution by starvation and dehydration and must be excruciating, even when the patient being deprived is unable to communicate their pain. Terri Schiavo remains the only American ever to be condemned to death by the courts without ever having committed a crime!