Declaring an Entire Class of Patients "Worthless"?

From the article, Withholding Care from Vegetative Patients: Financial Savings and Social Costs by L. Syd M. Johnson

In a recent column in the Huffington Post, Jacob M. Appel argues for “rational rationing” of health care resources by withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment from patients in a permanent vegetative state.

...when patients can no longer decide for themselves, or when they have not left instructions for their future care, the best way to protect their interests is to allow those who know them best to make decisions for them. Such decisions cannot come from a court in a one-size-fits-all statement about the value of a class of patients...

...It is unknown how many patients there are with chronic disorders of consciousness, in part because most of them are not in acute care facilities like Trinitas, but rather in long-term custodial care facilities. Many of these patients get very little care beyond artificial nutrition and hydration, although they can live for decades. Indeed, one of the tragedies for these patients is that they are neglected both clinically and socially...

...There are substantial social costs to declaring an entire class of patients “worthless.” Allowing health care providers, including institutions like acute care hospitals, to unilaterally decide, against the wishes of patients or their legal guardians, to withhold life-sustaining medical treatment invites abuse and diminishes transparency and due process...

...There are substantial social costs to declaring an entire class of patients “worthless.” Allowing health care providers, including institutions like acute care hospitals, to unilaterally decide, against the wishes of patients or their legal guardians, to withhold life-sustaining medical treatment invites abuse and diminishes transparency and due process...

What makes a person a person- is it that he can feel, think, do? Or is it that he is created in the image of God, able to feel, think, and do only because of God's mercy is upon him?

What of one who can no longer do- and likely think, and perhaps even feel- such as one in a persistent state of unconsciousness? Does he no longer bear God's image? What does he have to bring to the table, that is the table spoken of in Luke 14?

He has nothing to bring, as do you nor do I. He and we share equal footing at the Cross. We are all simply receivers of grace, mercy, faith, and repentance. However, the man, woman, or child in a persistent state of unconsciousness, in addition to being at the mercy of God is also at the mercy of us.

Will we not love him, as Christ loved us, helpless and vulnerable as we were before He rescued us? Will we not defend his life- or will we join the world and call his 'kind' worthless, allowing monetary resources to go to the more 'worthy'? Who are the 'worthy'? Those who can 'contribute'?

Human worth is not contingent on what humans 'contribute', but, rather, on what God gives to us, what He has contributed through His Son. Once enemies and haters of God, now we are the Bride of Christ, a royal priesthood, sons and daughters of the Living God, bought and paid for by our Savior Christ Himself.

Don't look at a human being and expect him to 'earn' his worth. We, none of us, can. But, rather is was earned for us- and for the, perhaps for the rest of his life, unconscious.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6 NASB