Improved Technology Collides with Religious Beliefs at the ICU

September 2, 2021

(The Economist) – This battle is about more than the suffering of a child, her family and those who care for her. Texas Right to Life, a pro-life group that is funding the Lewises’ legal fight, hopes it will result in the overturning of a state law designed to protect doctors’ right to withhold what is known as “futile” or “non-beneficial” care. The law allows doctors to see if another hospital will accept the patient and, if that fails, to stop treatment after ten days. Yet the questions this case raises, about how clashes between doctors who want to discontinue care and patients’ families who want to continue it should be adjudicated, are familiar to doctors in hospitals across America. Many say that such conflicts are happening more often. (Read Full Article)