Via John Hawkins, I just found out about the Andrea Clark case (involving a hospital refusing care to a patient who has lived too long with an expensive illness), and I thought I should spread the word. One of my worst fears is that in the future, patients will be euthanized to save money.

Rather than read all the details here, John has a number of posts on this medical horror story, but the bottom line is that St Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas, has been seeking (through a labyrinth of bureaucratic subterfuges aided by a law from hell) to pull the plug on a conscious patient who does not want to die.

The latest news is that the hospital is hoping they've made the issue go away so they can continue their quest to pull the plug:

Now that they think the heat is off because the press has reported that this issue is resolved, they apparently still believe that pulling Andrea's life support over the objections of Andrea and her family is in the "best interests of the patient." Folks, in my book, what St. Luke's is doing to Andrea Clark is now even more appalling and reprehensible than before because they offered false hope to the family and then cruelly yanked it away.

At this point, your phone calls to St. Luke's (their contact information is here and if you call, BE POLITE) may be the only thing that can save Andrea Clark's life.

As John points out, this is not a Terri Schiavo case:

. . .we've got a situation where a hospital that claims to provide "ethical, compassionate and quality care" is pulling a woman's respirator and dialysis against her wishes and the wishes of her family after a doctor at their facility has said she might be able to recover. That doesn't sound very "ethical" or "compassionate" to me and maybe if the word gets out about it, it might make a difference.

I think it's up to the patient whether continued care is futile. No damned insurance company should be allowed to tell anyone when to die.

Spread the word and call the hospital.