Free Johnston - Heartbeat by Joan Johnston

been forced to acknowledge her life was nearly half over. Maybe she wanted one last, desperately romantic fling before she hit middle age.
    That must be it. She missed the romance. Hell. She missed the sex.
    Maggie pursed her lips. What was wrong with that? It meant she was normal. If only she hadn’t ended up sprawled on top of Jack on Saturday. If only he hadn’t given her that toe-curling, early morning kiss. If only he hadn’t pressed his body against hers at the door and let her feel the irrefutable evidence of his desire.
    Maggie sighed inwardly. She was going to have to make some sort of decision about Jack Kittrick. But not right now. Right now she had business to attend to.
    Maggie hadn’t realized how long she’d hesitated at the door. The minutes of the previous meeting had already been read and approved by the time she took her place at the foot of a large, rectangular conference table. She set her black leather briefcase on the polished surface in front of her and opened it to retrieve a yellow legal pad and the silver Tiffany pen that had been her law school graduation gift from Uncle Porter. He had made her dream of becoming a lawyer come true, but his generosity hadn’t come without strings. She was paying him back every penny . . . with interest.
    Jack took a chair in the corner and winked when he caught her peeking at him. She was appalled at the way her body tightened inside. She averted her eyes, focusing on the pad in front of her. She doodled a daisy, something she used to do in college when she was daydreaming about the future. She clutched the pen, took a deep breath, and concentrated on what was being said.
    Once odds and ends of business had been dealt with, Roman introduced visitors to the meeting, including Jack.
    Then they went to work.
    Whenever a serious ethical dispute arose over treatment of a patient, the SAG Bioethics Committee, composed of doctors, nurses, social workers, and interested members of the community like Victoria, listened to the facts given by the doctor, the family, and whatever legal counsel might attend on behalf of the family, and came up with a nonbinding recommendation for action. The committee served as an arbiter of community feeling about medical procedures and hospital policy and helped to keep the hospital functioning within acceptable ethical parameters.
    This morning Joe Ray Belton and his mother sat near the head of the conference table, waiting for the committee’s recommendation on whether Joe Ray’s father, Sam, should be removed from life support.
    “Eighty-three-year-old Sam Belton suffered a heart attack at home and was put on life support in the emergency room at the hospital,” Roman began, stating the facts of the case. “Unfortunately, Mr. Belton suffered a stroke later that same day and slipped into a coma. Tests revealed the patient has no brain activity, and I recommended life support be discontinued. Mrs. Belton agreed.”
    It should have been a simple matter to turn off the machines at that point, except Joe Ray Belton had objected.
    Normally, this sort of decision never got as far as the bioethics committee. Texas law was pretty definite on the subject of unplugging folks who could be sustained on life support. The wishes of the patient were followed, or if those wishes weren’t known, the doctor and the family made the decision at bedside.
    Only, sometimes the doctor and the family didn’t agree what should be done. Or, as in this case, the doctor and one family member agreed, while another family member didn’t. Those cases were presented to the hospital bioethics committee for discussion and a nonbinding disposition that usually helped families come to some agreement.
    “I can understand Joe Ray’s concern for his father,” Roman said. “But I concur with Mrs. Belton in this matter. Machines are keeping Sam Belton’s body alive. The rest of him, the thought processes that made him who he was, are already dead. It’s time to