Life Legal Guardians Defend Against "Medicide"
Contact: Tom Ciesielka, 312-422-1333, tc@tcpr.net
OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 6, 2014 /Christian Newswire/
-- Eight months after Children's Hospital Oakland refused to care for
13-year old Jahi McMath, the girl is alive. According to her attorney
and doctors, she exhibits multiple forms of physical and neurological
activity. Early on, the Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) provided
legal documents to help Jahi's family attorney keep her on life support
even as the hospital pushed for a death certificate, and LLDF is now
making that assistance available to others, via the Life Legal Guardians
project.
Life
Legal Guardians battles a disturbing trend known as "medicide," in
which the very instruments of medicine (hospitals, drugs, treatments,
nutrition and hydration) are turned around and used as tools to hasten
death rather than preserve life. The project reaches into community with
education about the growing threats to life in the medical context, and
resources to avoid or deal with them.
The
past several decades have seen a proliferation of conflicts revolving
around whether or not to provide life-sustaining care to certain
individuals. Most notably among these cases is the unsuccessful legal
battle to save the life of Terri Schiavo. Life Legal Defense Foundation
has been involved in these controversies, which are fueled by
conflicting ideologies and cultural forces and the acceptance of the
belief that hastening death is an acceptable form of "treatment."
While
Jahi McMath remains in a coma, medical experts confirm that she is
living, exhibiting blood flow and electrical activity in her brain and
physical movement in response to her mother's voice.
"We
are elated to hear the good news about Jahi and will continue to
support her family and her attorney," stated Life Legal Defense
Foundation Executive Director Dana Cody. "In light of the latest
evaluation of this young girl's condition, we hope that Children's
Hospital Oakland will recognize that they jumped to an incorrect
conclusion about Jahi's condition when they refused to provide her with
palliative care and said that she was dead." Cody would like to see the
hospital step forward and offer to do everything they can to see that
Jahi fully recovers.
Life
Legal Guardians, a project of Life Legal Defense Foundation, prepares
individuals and families for the issues that arise out of end-of-life
disputes by ensuring they have the tools and resources in place to
protect their legal rights. The legal group also equips attorneys with
training that provides both philosophical backing for a pro-life
approach to medical decision making as well as practical resources on
how to litigate these cases.
Life Legal Guardians addresses "medicide" here.
Life Legal Defense Foundation offers information about your legal rights regarding end-of-life care here.
About Life Legal Defense Foundation
Life
Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a nonprofit
organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens
committed to giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and
their advocates, a trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our
nation. For more information about the Life Legal Defense Foundation,
visit www.lldf.org.
