Court documents filed as part of an investigation say that hospital workers in New Orleans killed patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I think the term they used was “euthanized.” I can already hear the excuses: They had “Do Not Resuscitate” orders anyway; better to die quickly than slowly; you weren’t there so you don’t know. All examples of justification of evil.
The allegations revolve around a group of patients left on the seventh floor at Memorial Medical Center. This floor was leased to a different entity, LifeCare Hospitals. According to NPR, the patients on the seventh floor were all DNR patients—they had “do not resuscitate” orders.
The report describes the deplorable conditions in the hospital which was left without power, without sewage, and in soaring temperatures with looters attempting to enter the hospital.
Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization that leads the disability community’s opposition to legalized assisted suicide, euthanasia and other forms of medical killing, points to a section of the NPR report suggesting the staff wanted to eliminate the patients so they could themselves escape.
Apparently the evacuation plan said that LifeCare personnel could not leave any living patients behind. Well, there’s one way to fix that problem.
Technorati Tags: euthanasia, hurricane-katrina
This entry made me so physically sick that it took me a while to try to post a comment here.
“LifeCare,” indeed.
Those responsible should be arrested, tried, and if found guilty, sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
This is revolting.
The slippery slope starts to look like a greased vertical pole that we are fast sliding down.
Was it right to kill patients? Of course not. Could they have been evacuated? If not, could they have been cared for where they were in those circumstances? Would staying with them where they were have resulted in even more deaths?
I think it would be best to let God be the judge of that tragedy. I don’t know what I’d do in such a nightmare. I don’t think any one who wasn’t there knows what they would have done.
It’s easy to be an armchair theologian from the comfort of our computer desk, but I don’t think we have the right.
May God have mercy on those who lived and on those who died.
We do have the right to decide that some things are immoral. The Church’s clear teaching from time immemorial is that you cannot take active steps to kill another. The end does not justify the means.
CCC #2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.
CCC #2324 Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator.
It is never right or excusable to directly kill innocent people. It is intrinsically evil. They should all be charged with first degree murder.
There are certain moral absolutes and one is that murder is an intrinsic evil. No circumstances excuse it.
True compassion is to suffer with or in one’s place. This was an act of hatred against God, the Creator and the sanctity of human life. I am so horrified that these most precious lives were so cheapened and that human beings decided they had the right to murder the vulerable and weak among us.
God Bless,
Isabelle
Hmmm, maybe the State of California can get one or two of these medicos to execute its prisoners. That is if no abortionists are willing to step up to the plate.
Why have there been no arrests?