http://192.168.2.6/english/生死应该由谁决定.rm

Hey, my love…

Amelia Gonzalez doesn’t have long to live. Maybe a month, maybe two. This hospital wants to pull the plug on his ventilator, in which case Amelia would die much sooner, probably within hours. The hospital says it’s the only humane thing to do because the ventilator and other treatments are causing the 17-month-old to be in pain.

We are inflicting suffering; we are inflicting harm on this child.

But this toddler’s mother says Amelia was on so much morphine he’s not in pain. Catarina Gonzalez says she knows her son only has a month or two to live, but she wants him to have every possible minute of life. Even though a rare genetic disorder’s left him unable to speak or see or eat on his own, she says his life still has value.

I put my finger in his hand, and I am talking to him, /and he will just squeeze it. He'll open his eyes and turn his head towards you. And he will look at you and look at you for a good while.

So the question is, who gets to decide whether Amelia will live or die. His mother or the hospital?

In an unusual law, the state of Texas says, the hospital. If doctors feel treatment is inappropriate, they can take someone off life support, even if the family disagrees. Doctors say for them, it’s a matter of ethics, according to this hospital/ spokesman.

We have to have a point at which it will be permissible for a physician, to say I have my sense of professional ethics, and I have my moral values, and I am simply not going to do this anymore.

Amelia’s mother is taking the hospital to court because she says it has overstepped its bounds.

They are trying to play God by saying who lives and who dies.

A lawyer for Austin Children’s Hospital says it’s not playing God and that as a Catholic hospital, the church’s teachings are clear.

In the Catholic tradition, we are obligated to use ordinary means to pursue and preserve our lives. We are not required to use extraordinary means.

So how this Texas law come about, giving hospitals the right to decide when it’s the time for someone to die? President George Bush, when he was governor of Texas, signed the law. Many see an irony given his stance six years later that Terri Schiavo should be allowed to live.

The legislative branch, executive branch ought to err on the side of life.

Doctor Lainie Ross, a pediatrician in bioethics, disagrees with Texas’ law.

I think the mother should absolutely make the final decision. I will definitely not pull the child off the ventilator.

Bioethicist Art Caplan says the hospital should decide. So there are situations where even though a mother’s love would say I don't ever want you to give up, medicine does have to set some limits to the continuation of care.

In Texas, the legislature is reconsidering the law, giving hospitals the right to make life and death decisions. It’s not clear if a decision would be made in time to change the fate of Amelia Gonzalez.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Austin Texas.