There was a baby boy who had been in a vegetative state since birth. He couldn't breathe without a machine, and had no brain stem reflexes. So we sent him out to have feeding and breathing tubes implanted, but the surgical team refused to do it. It'd be like giving mouth-to-mouth to a steak. Here's the thing, though: No one informed the mother that the surgery was being postponed for ethical reasons. Instead, the head doctor simply said that they needed to do more tests.
A week later, the ethics committee met -- without ever contacting the mom -- and decided that we should let the kid die. It's been months now, and the woman still doesn't know what's going on with her son. Don't get me wrong; I think that ceasing treatment is the right decision. But the hospital went about it in a terrible way, and there's shockingly little I can do about it besides file complaints.
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