Emilio Gonzales- Epilogue

Little Emilio has passed, in the loving arms of his mother-- as it should be. If society can learn anything from this infant's death, it is the importance of the right to value life, all life, and leave as much as we can about end of life decisions in God's hands.
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Toddler at center of Texas legal fight dies

The Associated Press
AUSTIN -- A toddler whose terminal illness started a contentious legal and ethical debate over who decides when life-sustaining treatment should cease has died. Nineteen-month-old Emilio Gonzales died in his mother's arms Saturday night at Children's Hospital of Austin, said family attorney Jerri Ward. He had been on a respirator since December."God chose to take Emilio at this time," Ward said.The family has not requested an autopsy, said Michele Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Seton Family of Hospitals. Children's Hospital physicians will make a final determination on the cause of death by the middle of the week, she said.

Emilio was believed to have Leigh's disease, which destroys brain functions. Doctors wanted to invoke a state law allowing them to stop life support for patients deemed medically futile after a 10-day notice. Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales of Lockhart, said she knew that her son would die but wanted doctors to continue care, pointing out that he smiled and turned his head when he heard voices. In April, a judge agreed to temporarily block the hospital's move to end life support.

In legal filings, Gonzales' attorney contended that the state law allowing doctors to overrule the treatment decisions of loved ones when conflicts arise is unconstitutional. A hearing had been set for May 30.The Senate approved legislation this month to give patients' families more time before ending life-sustaining treatment.

Cheryl Eckstein
Founder President
Compassionate Healthcare Network
(CHN)CHN is a not for profit organization, formed 1990. CHN - 11563 Bailey Cres., Surrey, B.C. V3V 2V4 Canada Phone - 604 582 3844 Visit us at / www.chninternational.com/default.html CHN is member of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life (WFDWRHL) Dr. Karl Gunning, Pres..

Ashley Hearing & Emilio Gonzales Decision- 9am tomorrow May 8th

Below, you will find several important updates, including events occurring TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 8th, regarding both Emilio Gonzales in Austin, TX and Ashley X in Seattle, WA. The first update and call to action is in reference to a 9am hearing for Emilio that takes place tomorrow morning. The second is in regard to a report due to be released tomorrow by the Washington Protection and Advocacy System that reveals how the Seattle Childrens Hospital broke the law when it performed Ashleys hysterectomy.
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The following update and call to action comes to AAPD from Bob Kafka (Not Dead Yet of Texas, ADAPT
Advocates: The life and death struggle of Emilio is now in the hands of the Court.

There will be a hearing on Tuesday, May 8th at 9am, CourtHouse, Room 201 (Between 11th and 12th St just west of Gualadupe) Austin, Texas. The legal issues are complex but it is believed if Emilio had a tracheotomy he could leave the hospital and be with his mother and die in a more dignified setting. If you are on a respirator or your child is, please come to the Court House and show that living on a respirator in the community is possible.

If you support the rights of people with significant disabilities please attend this hearing. This is a human and disability rights issue. Doctors should not be able to override our expressed wishes. Ironically the Catholic Church (Sisters of Charity run the hospital) and the Austin Bishop are supporting the killing of Emiliio. Orwellian speak has made them describe treatment of Emilio as "prolonging dying" rather than what it is "infanticide."Protecting the zygote seems more important than protection of the life of a 17 month child. Doctors are not infallible and should not play _ _ _ !

Please come to the Court House on Tuesday and support Emilio.
SOURCE: NOT DEAD YET of Texas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following update comes to AAPD from Amber Smock of Feminist Response in Disability Activism (FRIDA)

Thanks to Steve Drake of Not Dead Yet, FRIDA has learned that the Washington Protection and Advocacy System found that Seattle Children's Hospital failed to secure a court order for Ashley X's hysterectomy. (Please read below for the full announcement.) The report will be released on Tuesday. FRIDA thanks the WPAS for their exposure of this systemic breakdown. We encourage anyone who may be in the area on Tuesday to go to Seattle Children's for the report release at 10 am PST to represent for our community.FRIDA
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Thursday, May 03, 2007

WPAS Finds Hospital That Performed "Ashley Treatment" Violated Law by Not Having Court Order Hospital Takes Full Responsibility and Implements New Safeguards

SEATTLE, WA - An investigative report released today by the Washington Protection and Advocacy System* (WPAS) about the much-publicized "Ashley Treatment" finds that Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, as a result of a communication breakdown, violated Washington state law in performing the hysterectomy portion of the "Ashley Treatment" on a 6-year old with a developmental disability without a court order. This resulted in a violation of Ashley's constitutional and common law rights. Children's Hospital has acknowledged that Washington law requires a court order for the sterilization of a child with a developmental disability and has entered into an agreement with the Washington Protection and Advocacy System (WPAS) to take corrective action to assure that the sterilization of a child with a development disability does not happen again without a court order. Above and beyond the corrective action, Children's Hospital is taking additional steps to protect the rights of their patients with developmental disabilities.

WHAT: Release of WPAS' Investigation Report into "Ashley's Treatment" & Discussion of the Children's Hospital Response***also available to interview are disability advocates, parents of children with disabilities, and hospital officials***

WHO: David Carlson, WPAS Associate Director of Legal Advocacy;
Deborah A. Dorfman, WPAS Dir. of Legal Advocacy and Assoc.Executive Director;
Dr. David Fisher, Children's Hospital Medical Director;
Gail Lainhart-Rivas, Parent;
Corinna Lang Fale, SelfAdvocate;
and Curt Decker, Executive Director National DisabilityRights Network (NDRN) based in Washington, DC.

WHEN: 10:00 a.m. PST - Tuesday, May 8, 2007

WHERE: Auditorium, Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, 4800 Sand Point Way NE Seattle WA 98105
Park in Giraffe garage and check-in at Giraffe entrance
For the Main Campus directions, visit:www.seattlechildrens.org/home/about_childrens/maps_directions/

Washington Protection and Advocacy System (WPAS) is a private non-profit organization that protects the rights of people with disabilities statewide. The mission of WPAS is to advance the dignity, equality, and self-determination of people with disabilities. WPAS works to pursue justice on matters related to human and legal rights.

As part of a national trend with protection and advocacyagencies, WPAS is changing its name to Disability Rights Washington effective June 1, 2007.315 - Fifth Avenue South, Suite 850* Seattle, WA 98104tel: (206) 324-1521 * tty: (206) 957-0728 * fax: (206) 957-0729wpas@wpas-rights.org * www.wpas-rights.orgSource: FRIDA, Not Dead Yet

Emilio Gonzales and the Implications to Catholic Hospital

The Emilio debate rages on, as the Catholic Church weighs in on its moral obligations versus its legal requirements....
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Medical guidance from the church
In Gonzales case, church teachings are interpreted differently

By Eileen E. Flynn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, April 15, 2007

The mother says it's murder. The doctors call it mercy. Each claims that Catholic teachings on end-of-life care support their positions.In the case of Emilio Gonzales, the 17-month-old boy with a terminal disease at Children's Hospital of Austin, the decision over whether to remove him from a respirator has been steeped in legal maneuverings and court rulings. But because both Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales, and the Seton Family of Hospitals rely on the Roman Catholic Church for guidance, theological questions on the boy's care have generated another layer of debate over Catholic doctrine that permits ending medical care for dying patients.

Gonzales brought her son to the Seton-run Children's Hospital with a collapsed lung on Dec. 27. Emilio was put on life support in the pediatric intensive care unit the next day, then doctors told her that Emilio suffered from a rare, incurable disorder that causes the central nervous system to break down. Since then Gonzales, doctors and hospital officials have clashed over how to care for Emilio, with Gonzales seeking more aggressive treatment and doctors recommending withdrawal of life support. In trying to weigh the sanctity of life against the desire for a dignified death, Bishop Gregory Aymond supports the doctors' decision."It is my responsibility as a shepherd to make sure we are respecting human life and that we are not in any way carelessly taking human life or not respecting the dignity of human life," he said.

Meanwhile, Gonzales has said that she's sought counsel from her Lockhart priest and believes that God will take her son when it's time. Her conscience tells her to keep fighting to keep Emilio alive until that time comes. And she's found support from organizations that say Catholic teaching backs her position, not the hospital's. The conflict is now before Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman, who has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to decide whether to require the doctors to continue treating Emilio while his mother looks for another facility that will take him.

As medical technology evolves, the church continually reviews its position on medical ethics, striving to balance the Catholic view that life is sacred with the desire to provide dignity in natural death.In 1980, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department that oversees Catholic doctrine, released a declaration on euthanasia that said it's morally acceptable to discontinue extraordinary, or disproportionate, care when a patient's death is imminent. In his 1995 encyclical "The Gospel of Life," Pope John Paul II wrote that such a step was not equivalent to euthanasia or suicide, that "it rather expresses acceptance of the human condition in the face of death."The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops echoes those sentiments in its directives for health care services, the guidelines Seton's ethics committee used in its review. Abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide clearly violate Catholic teaching, the document states, but the rules on withdrawing treatment reveal the complexities of weighing medical technology, family desires and what's best for the patient."The use of life-sustaining technology is judged in light of the Christian meaning of life, suffering, and death," the directives state. "Only in this way are two extremes avoided: on the one hand, an insistence on useless or burdensome technology even when a patient may legitimately wish to forgo it and, on the other hand, the withdrawal of technology with the intention of causing death."Determining when not to use available technology is the difficult part, said the Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a neuroscientist on staff at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, who has been following the Gonzales case closely."There is a clear downward trajectory here," he said. "This child is dying. The question is what do we have to do in order to provide proper care to a dying individual."In cases like these, he said, the church teachings are clear that removing Emilio from life support would be morally acceptable.Though some have drawn comparisons between Emilio and Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed in 2005, the church sees the situations as distinctly different, Pacholczyk said."Terri Schiavo was not dying of anything," he said, which is why church leaders rallied to try to prevent ending her care. She was a disabled person who died because she was denied nutrition and hydration, a step the Catholic Church would never sanction, he said.

But that's what Emilio's doctors are proposing, argues Burke Balch, director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, which handles euthanasia issues. The boy is receiving nutrition and breathing assistance, which he believes the church would consider ordinary care."In Catholic teaching, if you omit treatment with the intent of bringing about death, that is considered euthanasia, which is forbidden," he said. "And in this case, that seems to be the object aimed at."

On Feb. 19, Emilio's doctors consulted with the pediatric and neonatal ethics committee, a group of people from the community who review difficult cases and make sure Seton adheres to Catholic teaching in its health care practices.The hospital was founded by the Daughters of Charity and preserves the mission of those nuns. The committee first advised doctors to pursue more options for the boy. But the following month, after Emilio's condition worsened, members determined that continued treatment was futile. Between meetings with doctors and the Gonzales family, the committee also met with Aymond, said Michael Regier, general counsel for the Seton hospital system."We regularly consult with the bishop," he said, "particularly on issues where we think there may be some likelihood that the issues could be (the topic of) public discussion or debate."Aymond turned to national and international bioethicists and theologians and said he tried to weigh the details of Emilio's situation against the overall philosophy issued from the Vatican. Aymond said he's satisfied with the hospital's conclusion."From the documentation I have read from the doctors and the ethics committee," he said, "the hospital staff and administration have acted responsibly and what they are suggesting to do is in accordance with church teaching."But he would not say that Catarina Gonzales is wrong to seek continued treatment, and he said he would like to meet with her to talk about the church's teachings."The difficulty that we always run into is that very often for any of us, whether it's a bishop, a priest, a lay person, we may understand something theologically and theoretically, what we feel about it is very different," Aymond said.
eflynn@statesman.com; 445-3812

Emilio's Story

This is a story that is below the radar, but people need to know. A Catholic hopsital wants to deny medical treatment for a child with a rare congential disease, Leigh's Disease, who is blind and deaf, and has a shortened life expectancy. Most kids live until 6-7; Texas doesn't want to find out.

It is interesting to note that because he is young and poor, the concerns focus not on the sanctity of life, but how he can't feel, or think, and how the ventilator is cruelty...

A poor family, on Medicaid is not given other options, so they are fighting it out in court....

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Restraining Order Gives Disabled Child Emilio 19 More Days of Life at Catholic Hospital

By Hilary White
AUSTIN,
March 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -

Emilio Gonzales has been given a reprieve by a restraining order to prevent a Catholic hospital from removing his respirator in ten days, as planned. Officials at the hospital have agreed to continue his care until at least April 10.The hospital's decision came after Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales filed a restraining order to require the hospital to continue her infant son's treatment, which consists of a respirator and feeding tube. She hopes the extra time will be sufficient to find another hospital willing to continue Emilio's care but so far facilities in Texas, Oklahoma, California and New York have all turned down her requests.

Gonzales was told by the Brackenridge Children's Hospital of Austin, March 12, that she had ten days to find another care facility or they would turn off Emilio's respirator. Brackenridge is part of the Seton Catholic health care system.Doctors have said that that Emilio's treatment is "medically inappropriate" although they have admitted that without the assisted breathing and nutrition and hydration, the child, who was born blind and deaf and suffers from Leigh's Disease, would die within days. "This care is medically inappropriate," said committee member Michael Regier. "The aggressive care that this infant is receiving is causing suffering, harm to the infant and without clinical benefit, and that should be discontinued."

Texas is one of two states with a "futile care" law that allows physicians to discontinue life-saving treatment without the consent of patients. Texas legislators are currently considering changing the law to require medical facilities to maintain such treatment until families can find alternate care arrangements. Leigh's disease is an incurable neurometabolic disorder that affects the central nervous system leading to loss of motor control and frequently to eventual respiratory, kidney and heart failure. Sufferers can live as long as may live to be 6 or 7 years of age. Some have survived to their mid-teenage years. Emilio is now 16 months old."I'm scared, because I don't want to lose my son, because I know he's moving," said Catarina. "I wish people could see him.""My biggest concern is the lack of time, which has always been my concern with this particular statute, because 10 days is simply not enough time in a situation like this to find another transfer," said Catarina's attorney, Jerri Ward told KXAN, a local NBC news affiliate.If the hospital does not grant an extension, the next step is a court hearing Wednesday.

Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Mother Given 10 Days to Find New Hospital For Sick Child or Hospital Will Remove Respirator http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032102.html