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DesideriScuri -> RE: In malpractice case, Catholic hospital argues fetuses aren’t people (1/24/2013 4:33:43 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
Talk about fucked up.....
But when it came to mounting a defense in the Stodghill case, Catholic Health’s lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head. Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and state laws that fail to protect “unborn persons,” and Catholic Health’s lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering anti-abortion legal arguments. Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.
As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court “should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,’ as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person’ under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses.”
http://coloradoindependent.com/126808/in-malpractice-case-catholic-hospital-argues-fetuses-arent-people
Lawyers will do what lawyers do.
Someone mentioned the issue of what point the plaintiff was making, that is what was the plaintiff suing over? quote:
Lori Stodghill was 31-years old, seven-months pregnant with twin boys and feeling sick when she arrived at St. Thomas More hospital in Cañon City on New Year’s Day 2006. She was vomiting and short of breath and she passed out as she was being wheeled into an examination room. Medical staff tried to resuscitate her but, as became clear only later, a main artery feeding her lungs was clogged and the clog led to a massive heart attack. Stodghill’s obstetrician, Dr. Pelham Staples, who also happened to be the obstetrician on call for emergencies that night, never answered a page. His patient died at the hospital less than an hour after she arrived and her twins died in her womb.
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Stodghill’s husband Jeremy, a prison guard, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of himself and the couple’s then-two-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Staples should have made it to the hospital, his lawyers argued, or at least instructed the frantic emergency room staff to perform a caesarian-section.
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As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court “should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,’ as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person’ under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses.”
Langley is using CO law to defend his client. To be honest, this lawsuit isn't against a Church or a religion. I don't know what options were available to the staff at the hospital at that time. It is entirely possible that they could not act without directions from the attending OB. As that OB didn't answer a page, they may not have been allowed to act.
What this comes down to, IMO, is whether or not the hospital is liable because the OB failed to answer a page when he was "on call." If not, then the hospital shouldn't have to defend itself. I do think the OB bears some liability for not answering the page when he was "on call." I can see a malpractice suit ahead. Too many unknowns to really be able to state whether the hospital is liable here nor not, but I would have to think the OB holds some.
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