Life-or-Death Issue

Karen Weber, a 57-year-old Florida woman, died last week right in the middle of what might be the worst sort of family argument — whether to withdraw the feeding tube.

“It just happened to be her time,” said Joseph Rodowicz, the attorney for Weber’s mother. She had opposed ceasing the efforts that had since December held off her daughter’s “time,” prolonging her life, or, in the husband’s view, prolonging his wife’s death.

Families can’t decide, so Rodowicz and other attorneys take the emotional issue into the legal system, which isn’t much better equipped than families to make the call, judging by the more perverse outcomes. According to Thaddeus Pope, a law professor who is an expert in the area of futile medical care, courts routinely order doctors to continue treating patients who are legally dead.

Doctors are not only divided on where the line extending hope and medical futility lies, but wary of becoming legally entangled in family disputes, according to Pope. Laws like the New Mexico statute that might empower doctors to refuse to provide futile care, usually fall in the vague, gray area short of their aim, he said.

Who can decide, then, when it just happens to be your time? Death is too personal to leave it to distraught relatives, or medical and legal professionals — or to the last moments. Clear instructions, with a clearly designated person in charge of carrying them out and clear explanations of final wishes to loved ones are no absolute guarantee. But they do offer the strongest chance of you meeting death on your terms.

(c) 2008 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.