I just received this in my news feed. Taunya English at WHYY aired a piece on the Appellate Court Ruling on Betancourt v. Trinitas. The case involved the effort of Trinitas Regional Medical Center in New Jersey to remove treatment from a patient over the objections of the family. Having lost in a trial court, Trinitas – with support from other medical organizations – sought to have the trial court’s ruling overturned. Since the court ruled the case moot due to the death of the patient, the trial court ruling stands.
Anne’s comments are at the end of the piece. Comments from family attorney Todd Drayton are included, as well as remarks from Thaddeus Pope.
Anne Studholme’s comments:
Attorney Anne Studholme represents a coalition of disability rights organizations led by Not Dead Yet. In the appeal case, she argued on behalf of the group as a friend of the court.
Studholme: People with disabilities are quite sensitive to the sort of thinking which says, ‘Well, I wouldn’t want to live that way, therefore, he must not want to live that way.’ A lot of people say: Just try living that way for a while. You might find you prefer to live.
Just in: According to Thaddeus Pope, there is one article that reports the hospital hasn’t ruled out an appeal.
So, is there any possibility of criminal charges against the hospital? (Or, maybe a Brown v. Simpson – style civil case?) Thx.
Kell, criminal cases against hospitals are rare – virtually nonexistent. They are expensive to prosecute and it’s difficult to get a conviction for criminal wrongdoing against a medical professional. I’ll have to write sometime about the long conversation I had with the prosecutor in the Orville Lynn Majors case – Majors was a nurse convicted of killing several patients in his care. He was suspected of having killed dozens more. Understanding what it took to put that case together and how much it costs helps explain why prosecutions are so rare – and this was just one nurse rather than a medical facility with a law firm on retainer. I’ll see if I can find my notes. –Stephen