How many people are taken off life support in the U.S. each year?

[camaro3232]

Like the TS case?

[camitche]

1. I don't even know if you can find such stats

but I do not that it happens all the time in florida and elsewhere. people seem to think this is the first time this has happened and that it is the first time there has been an argument inside the family about it. it's not. that's why florida has laws establishing who the legal guardian is.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Must be common in Florida with all the seniors there.

[beyurslf]

3. I would think every family has had to make this decision at some

point. Maybe not a feeding tube, but surely machines of some sort. We had to decide whether to use sucking to keep pulling fluid from my grandma's lungs. It was the worst decision we ever had to make because she clearly told us to let her go before she lost consciousness. And make no mistake, she said do not suction my lungs. She had had to make that choice with her father a few years earlier and saw the suction prolong his life a month and cause nothing but pain. So we didn't suction her lungs at all. But hearing her literally drowning in fluid.... I can't tell you it is not something that makes me pause to reconsider--even absolutley knowing it is what she wanted.
No family should have to publicly declare these decisions for all to judge.

[camaro3232]

5. agreed, I think its wrong to be in the media so much ,

[Pool Hall Ace]

4. If you try googling for those stats, the first link is

a FUX news report noting the absence of state or national statistics on cessation of life support, because of privacy concerns -- something that Mrs. Schiavo apparently was not entitled to.