This is hard to read

I don't recommend it if you're feeling sickened, but it's a tremendously important article if you're interested in the aftermath of Katrina, medical ethics, the responsibility of medical providers in a time of crisis, and the rights of patients.

Investigations continue on exactly what happened in that hospital, but I think it's clear that difficult decisions were made there. I don't know what I would have done in the same situation. As a religious person, I'm of the basic opinion that a physician has no right to take steps to end a patient's life. I don't know what a sick person would want, or whether a simple death would be preferable to dying naturally, but slowly and presumably painfully.

I don't even know if it's entirely reasonable for a person to retain complete sanity when you're under the strain of four days of failing power, no food, probably little sleep, unceasing work, and possibly no hope of rescue. I would simply hope that no medical professional knowingly ended someone's life of their own (the physician's) volition. We trust our medical professionals to preserve and protect life to the best of their ability. My faith demands, anyway, that we leave decisions like these in God's hands - once on lifesupport equipment, for example, it's my understanding that Judaism demands that you maintain that support. You may choose not to employ it in the first place, but once in place, removing it is tantamount to murder.

Again, I'm choosing not to judge the actions of the doctors at Memorial Hospital. I wasn't there and we don't know yet what happened. Perhaps nothing did. But I do think this is a very important thing to investigate, and an important question for society to discuss. Who chooses when someone dies? (Leaving aside for the moment the Death Penalty, which for the record I support and belongs in a different discussion.) What responsibility does a physician have, especially when acting or not acting will risk their own lives? What rights to patients in these situations have?

It may be one of the more important questions in understanding the aftermath of Katrina - not simply the human tragedy of death & destruction, but the actions of people when faced with such choices.