Ronald Bailey Opposes Brain-Dead Paternalism

In California this past December, due to a rare
complication from a tonsillectomy performed to relieve her sleep
apnea, 13-year-old Jahi McMath experienced massive bleeding. She
was placed on a ventilator, and her physicians declared her
brain-dead three days later. In Texas in November, 33-year-old
Marlise Munoz, collapsed onto her kitchen floor. Her husband
found her about an hour later, and she too is now brain-dead and on
a ventilator. In both cases, state officials want to override the
wishes of the next of kin with regard to how the patients should be
treated. With regard to these two sad cases, Reason
Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey argues against the intrusion of
the government or the interference of paternalistic physicians.

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