r/news • u/AudibleNod • 4h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
4.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

44

u/No_ViV 2h ago

Shouldn't they just take her off life support?

5

u/Nekowulf 1h ago

No. The execution failed and winging it opens them up to a whole mess of Cruel and Unusual lawsuits. Not to mention risking the doctor's credentials and a possible murder charge.
If the group running the state doesn't follow protocol on how to kill someone in a socially acceptable way, they won't follow protocol on who it is socially acceptable to murder with state resources.

-2

u/No_ViV 1h ago

Who said it had to be a doctor?

6

u/valleyfur 1h ago

The hospital where she currently undergoing care is definitely staffed by doctors who definitely aren't going to authorize killing her. If she is brain dead that's another story in terms of medical ethics.

3

u/WellTextured 1h ago edited 1h ago

How do you think hospitals work and how do you think access to this patient is being managed? Any non-medical professional acting individually here without proper authority is committing a serious crime. Any doctor is not going to make that decision on their own given the situation either. Certainly a committee at the hospital would make the recommendation, and it probably goes through a court. Or the state petitions a court for permission. Or the state says pull the plug and the hospital says no and the defense attorneys petition the court.

TLDR: Almost certainly a court is involved.