Schiavo Case With A Twist

The Schiavo Case With An Outrageous Twist

"A Winnipeg case currently winding its way to its grim conclusion pits the children of Samuel Golubchuk against doctors at the Salvation Army Grace General Hospital. According to the pleadings, Golubchuk's doctors informed his children that their 84-year-old father is "in the process of dying" and that they intended to hasten the process by removing his ventilation, and if that proved insufficient to kill him quickly, to also remove his feeding tube. In the event that the patient showed discomfort during these procedures, the chief of the hospital's ICU unit stated in his affidavit that he would administer morphine.


Golubchuk is an Orthodox Jew, as are his children. The latter have adamantly opposed his removal from the ventilator and feeding tube, on the grounds that Jewish law expressly forbids any action designed to shorten life, and that if their father could express his wishes, he would oppose the doctors acting to deliberately terminate his life.


In response, the director of the ICU informed Golubchuk's children that neither their father's wishes nor their own are relevant, and he would do whatever he decided was appropriate. Bill Olson, counsel for the ICU director, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company that physicians have the sole right to make decisions about treatment — even if it goes against a patient's religious beliefs — and that "there is no right to a continuation of treatment.""

No right to a continuation of treatment? This is clearly a case of an elderly man who needs a ventilator to help him breath (the machine is not breathing for him), and a feeding tube for nourishment. This is not extreme intervention in the prolonging of a life already gone, but a life that must be sustained to his natural end.

So, these "doctors" wish to kill him by removing his feeding tube, and then administer morphine to kill any pain he may have. Why is that? I would think they're admitting he would suffer extreme and excruciating pain by withholding food and fluids from him.

We cannot allow this to happen again. I'm praying Terri is in heaven interceding on his behalf.