Judges Dealing with DNRs

Judge Rory R. Olsen  (Harris County Probate Court No. 3) recently published his article entitled Who Woke the Sleeping Firefighter?, 2 Est. Plan. & Community Prop. L.J. 275 (2010). The conclusion is below:

While no sane person-and certainly not this author-is suggesting that the federal government is proposing anything like euthanasia or a revival of the T4 program, there are legitimate issues that need to be discussed, such as the following: 

1. Is the physician’s responsibility only to his or her patient, or should the physician also look to the overall social good?
2. If we give the federal government the power to decide who receives certain kinds of medical treatments and how much can be spent on treating them, are we not delegating life and death decisions to the federal government? If the federal government holds the ultimate power of life and death over the citizenry, will we have ceased to be free people?
3. Who should make the decisions concerning the allocation (rationing) of health care resources-bureaucrats, elected officials, judges?

In a free society, such subjects need to be debated freely and openly with no arbitrary time limits imposed upon the debate. If given sufficient time, maybe a consensus will develop; or maybe it will not. Whatever happens, these issues are now under discussion at levels of society, which is how it should be!