Contact: Linda Evans Shepherd, www.LindaAndLaura.com, 303-772-2035, 303-709-9043

DENVER, April 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- In regard to the case of 17-month-old Emilio Gonzales at Children's Hospital of Austin, Linda Evans Shepherd releases the following and is available for comment:

As a mother whose child has been on life support since she was 18-months-old, (she's now 20,) I'm appalled that the Austin, Texas hospital's ethics committee is violating a family's rights by planning to take 17-month-old Emilio Gonzales off life support, despite his family's decision to keep him alive.

My daughter, who has been on life support for eighteen years, leads a very happy and healthy life.  The Texas hospital we were in, in the eighties, would have gladly ended my daughter's life following a violent car crash, if they'd had the power to do so. But we, her family said no to their efforts to pull her plug.

Thank God we won the fight.  Laura has grown up to be a happy, young adult; though disabled.

But times have changed. Prejudice against the disabled is growing. Today, my family is afraid Laura will be denied emergency care at some of our local hospitals.  In fact, we've already had to come against ER doctors who've tried to do just that, deny antibiotics simply because they didn't understand the value of Laura's life.  I stood up to one such ER doctor and my daughter received the help she needed.  The doctor who had tried to deny antibiotics, later apologized when he saw her amazing joy and personality -- as she recovered from a simple but severe bladder infection.  With tears in his eyes, he said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

But my question is, where will this lack of respect for the lives of the disabled stop?

We know where it stopped in Nazi Germany -- in specially designed vans used to euthanize disabled children.  That is, until a local pastor stood up to the killers and said, "No more!"

Public pressure turned the tide and the killing of disabled children stopped.

It's not to late to take a stand against this violence against the disabled.  It's not to late to participate in a public outcry that says, "No more!" If Emilio were an endangered species like an owl, a fish or even a worm, the public outcry would be heard all the way to Washington.  But he's a Hispanic baby boy. 

This is prejudice of the worst kind. If we don't cry out, how many other children, elderly, and disabled people will die at the hands of hospital ethics committees, committees who've taken both God and the value of human life out of their death-decision calculations? Their formulas will become more blood-thirsty, to the point that any American with a sudden disability, stroke or aging issue will be at risk for execution.

 
High resolution, copyright free pictures available at www.LindaAndLaura.com.

Linda Evans Shepherd is a best selling novelist (The Potluck Club Series), and a nationally recognized speaker and radio and television personality in the Denver area.