The tragedy of Rachel Nyirahabiyambere
Hi there,
It’s always best to wait for both sides of a
story to emerge. But a New York Times report makes Georgetown University
Medical Center and the US health system look quite heartless. After the
children of a brain-damaged Rwandan migrant without health insurance could not
pay for hospitalisation or nursing care, her feeding tubes were removed and she
is slowly starving to death in a Maryland nursing home.
There will certainly be further
developments in this breaking news. Not only is it a case study in medical
ethics, but it will also give ammunition to opponents of President Obama’s
healthcare program. They will surely use it as an example of what “death
panels” could do. Stay tuned.
Read the story below.
Cheers,
Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge
Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.
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