Legal guardians have the authority to order their wards to be disconnected from life support, according to a state Court of Appeals ruling Monday that said the end-of-life decision shouldn’t be dictated by the courts.
“This supports our position that guardians don’t need to go back to court to get consent to terminate life support,” said Charles Singer, the attorney for the professional guardian appointed for Jeffers Tschumy, the man at the center of the case. “We’ve been operating under that assumption for 30 years.”
Monday’s decision overturns a Hennepin County District Court ruling that said end-of-life decisions are too important to be made by a guardian most likely appointed years before to handle matters of daily living.
Minnesota has 12,000-plus wards; the decision could affect those who don’t have health care directives in place spelling out their end-of-life decisions. It is the first time such an issue has been addressed in the state courts.
Tschumy, 57, was mentally disabled and living in a group home under the guardianship of Joseph Vogel since 2008. In April 2011, he choked on food and was declared severely brain damaged with little hope for recovery.
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State court of appeals reverses ruling that prevented guardians from ordering their wards from life support
6 comments:
And what about the Guardians who, under the courts watch, toss the Wards Advance Directives to the wind?
In our legal system today Advance Directives are not worth the paper they are written on! Wards "with & without" Advance Directives are being exploited by unscrupulous Professional Guardians and the Courts use their rubber stamp of approval! See http://stopguardianabuse.org/ritadenmark.htm
Get educated before it happens to you!
I hope Senators Klobuchar and Franken are all over this!
When the money is gone, get rid of the ward?
This scares the begeebers out of me!
This sounds like a recipe for disaster for elderly and disabled under Obamacare. Once money runs out, I fear the invalidation of Advance Directives and no oversight on ending life support for Wards.
This is state sanctioned murder. In Oregon, they have stopped giving chemo to cancer patients. Again, Obmacare and state sanctioned murder.
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