Chapter 7 campbell

I stand up and look at my notecard.Then, like Sarah, I toss them in the wastebasket. "As Mrs. Fitzgerald just said, this case isn't about Anna donating a kidney, or whether she's donating skin cells, blood cells, or a set of DNA. It's about a girl who aspires to be someone. A thirteen-year-old The girl, her hard work, sadness, sweetness and joy. A girl may not know what she wants now, may not know who she is now, but we should give her a chance to find out. In my opinion, ten years later, she It’s likely to surprise us.” I walked up to the bench, "We know the Fitzgeralds were forced to do the impossible -- to make reasonable medical decisions for both of their children, when in reality, their medical interests were at odds. And if we -- Like the Fitzgeralds -- they don't know what the right decision is, so the person who has to make the final decision should be the person who owns this body...even if she is only a thirteen-year-old child. In general , which is the crux of the lawsuit: Sometimes a child may know better than her parents what to do.

"I know that when the lawsuit was filed, Anna didn't make the decision for the reasons you might think—she was a self-centered thirteen-year-old girl; she made the decision to be as free as girls her age, She is also unrestrained; she made this decision because she was tired of being pricked and poked by needles; she made this decision because she was afraid of pain..." I turned around and smiled at Anna. "You know what? I wouldn't be surprised if in the end Anna decides to donate her kidney to her sister. But it doesn't matter what I think. With all due respect, Judge DeSaro, it doesn't matter what you think. Sarah and Brian, And it doesn't matter what Kate Fitzgerald thinks. It matters what Anna thinks." I went to my chair. "That's the only voice we should be listening to."

Judge DeSaro called a fifteen-minute adjournment pending his sentencing.I use this time to walk my dog.We circled the lawn in the little plaza behind the courthouse.Sheriff Fern watched over the reporters as they waited to hear the verdict.I said to the judge as he circled the fourth circle looking for a place to liberate, "Come on, no one's looking at you." But that's not entirely true.A small child, no more than four years old, let go of his mother's hand and rushed towards us. "Dog!" he yelled, courting the judge with outstretched arms, and the judge moved closer to me.

His mother took a moment to grab him, "Sorry, my son is growing his canines. Can we pet him?" "No," I said reflexively, "it's a care dog." "Oh." The woman stood up straight and pulled her son away, "but you're not blind." I am an epileptic and he is my watchdog during seizures.For the first time I want to be straight and clear.But then I thought, you have to be able to laugh at yourself, don't you? "I'm a lawyer," I smiled at her, "and it will chase the ambulance for me." Me and the judge walked away, and I whistled.

When Judge DeSaro returned to the bench with a framed photograph of his dead daughter, it immediately made me think I had lost the case. "One of the things that strikes me during the cross-examination of witnesses," he said, "is that in this courtroom we all get into the quality of life versus the dignity of life debate. The Fitzgeralds have no doubt always believed that It was important to keep Kate alive and continue to be part of their family - but at this point, the dignity of Kate's existence began to become completely entangled with the quality of Anna's life. My job was to see if I could separate the two."

He shook his head, "I'm not sure any of us are qualified to decide which of the two is more important - at least I think so. I'm a father. When my daughter Dina was twelve years old, she was killed by a drunk Killed by a motorist. When I got to the hospital that night, I would have done anything to get her to live another day. The Fitzgeralds have been in this state for fourteen years—they would have done anything to make them I respect their decision. I admire their courage. I envy them that they actually had this chance. But as both lawyers pointed out, this case is not just about Anna and a kidney, it's about these decisions What to do, and how we decide, who decides."