Emotional, Religious Reasons to Keep Grandson in PVS on Life Support

This sad story in the Chicago Tribune powerfully illustrates why one grandmother could not consent to comfort care only for her grandson.  



The grandmother's daughter had been shot by a gang member while still pregnant.  "To Jefferson, the baby looked just like her daughter — her face, her color, her hands. But doctors told her [the baby] would remain in a persistent vegetative state, unable to see, hear or breathe on his own."  Clinicians "urged her to remove him from life support, telling her his condition would never improve." 



The grandmother "set the date to pull the plug — Oct. 20, 2011, what would have been her daughter's 18th birthday.  But she had a change of heart as she entered Advocate Christ Medical Center that day.  



"I couldn't see turning the machine off on him . . ..   Who am I to judge whether he lives or dies, OK?  I think at (the hospital) a lot of them were kind of disappointed with me because they thought actually I was

going to turn the machine off. . . .  But my faith didn't allow me to do it."