Consider this: as the U.S. Congress intervened in the status of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, a 6-month-old black baby quietly went to sleep forever on March 15 at Texas Children’s Hospital. Against the wishes of Wanda Hudson, the boy’s mother, hospital officials took Sun Hudson off a ventilator that was helping him to breathe.
The mother, a 33-year-old poor black woman with no prenatal care, begged the hospital to keep her child alive. “This hospital was considered a miracle hospital,” Wanda Hudson said. “When it came to my son, they gave up in six months.”
Ironically, Sun Hudson went down because of the “HYPERLINK “http://www.azcentral.com/specials/pluggedin/articles/0321newcomb0321life.html”Texas Futile Care Law,” which was signed by then Gov. George W. Bush. The law stipulates that a Texas hospital, with the consent of a doctor and an ethics committee, can stop care deemed futile and too costly n even if the patient’s legal guardian opposes the action.
“Where were all the right-to-lifers when it came to baby Sun Hudson?” Dr. Mike Newcomb asked in a column in the Arizona Republic. “If you’re poor, a minority and costing a hospital corporation too much money, your life is meaningless.”