Where are Randall Terry, Bill Frist and the whole religious right now?

Friday, June 16, 2006 at 06:43 PM

Remembering the Terri Schiavo circus, it's a hard question not to ask when you read this report:

Mother fights hospital to keep baby on life support
Agreement reached to continue treatment to look for new facility.
By Jamie Stengle
Thursday, June 01, 2006

DALLAS -- A mother fighting to keep her baby on life support after a hospital's ethics board agreed with the boy's doctor that it would be futile to continue treatment will get two more weeks to find a facility that will take the 10-month-old.

A judge had been set to decide Friday whether to grant a temporary injunction to stop Children's Medical Center Dallas from removing Daniel Wayne Cullen II from life support, but attorneys for the boy's mother and the hospital agreed Wednesday to extend a temporary restraining order for another two weeks, said the attorney for the mother. Children's confirmed the agreement.

"I think the hospital is eager to see that this case is resolved in the best interest of the child," said lawyer Brian Potts, who represents the mother, Dixie Belcher. He said he will submit the deal to a judge by today.

The child, who has had breathing problems since his premature birth, was hospitalized in early April after suffering from a lack of oxygen when he pulled out a tube that was helping him breathe. He remains on a ventilator.

"They're telling me he's brain-dead, but he has a little bit of activity going on," said Belcher, a 37-year-old single mother from Grand Prairie who says her son has opened his eyes when she's spoken to him. "He responds to nobody but me. They don't see it.

"Something's telling me deep down inside not to unplug him. My son will pull out of this."

...
A spokeswoman at Children's said the hospital could not comment because of privacy laws and CPS involvement.

Under Texas law (signed by GW in 1999), hospitals don't have to continue life support beyond 10 days after their ethics board decides lifesaving measures are pointless. But families have the right to look for a facility that will continue treatment.