Injured Indiana hunter chooses to end life support

JENI O'MALLEY news.yahoo.com Tim Bowers loved the outdoors. Hunting gave him the quiet time during which he could reflect on a busy life that included a new wife, a successful business and a baby on the way. The Indiana man was enjoying that time while hunting for deer Saturday when he fell 16 feet from a tree and suffered a severe spinal injury that paralyzed him from the shoulders down. Doctors thought he might never breathe on his own again. Confronted with that prognosis, Bowers' family made an unusual request of doctors at Fort Wayne's Lutheran Hospital: Could Bowers be brought out of sedation and told of his condition so he could decide for himself whether he wanted to live or die? The doctors said yes, and Bowers made his choice. "We just asked him, 'Do you want this?' And he shook his head emphatically no," his sister, Jenny Shultz, said of her brother, who was also often found hunting, camping or helping his father on his northeastern Indiana farm. Courts have long upheld the right of patients to refuse life support. The American Medical Association says competent adults can craft directives stating if or when they want such systems withdrawn or withheld should injuries or illness leave them unable to make those decisions. But it's rare after a devastating injury that a patient would get to make such a decision for himself. to read more click here: news.yahoo.com