by Deborah K. Cruze, JD MA
- USA -

Kareem lays silently, hooked up to a ventilator and numerous other machines in the Intensive Care Unit. His family surrounds him, anxiously discussing what the next step should be. Yesterday he was an active, athletic father of four who owned his own business. Now the doctors are saying that the 57-year-old victim of a near-fatal car accident is unable to breathe on his own and that his brain shows severe neurological impairment. It is unlikely that he will ever wake up.