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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJustice Ruth Ginsburg had cardiac surgery on Wednesday.
I hope the surgery is successful and she regains her health, both for her own sake and for that of the country as a whole.
But at her age, having had two bouts with cancer as well as the recent heart problems, she should resign. She should have resigned while we still controlled the Senate, but it would still be better for her to resign immediately than to take the chance of dying after Obama is replaced by a Rethug.
She's been a great Justice, but no one is irreplaceable, not even Ruth Ginsburg.
http://www.statecolumn.com/2014/11/will-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-worsening-health-interfere-with-justice-duties/
After previously surviving colon and pancreatic cancer, the 81-year-old Supreme Court justice is reportedly resting comfortably after cardiac surgery Wednesday.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg remained hospitalized Wednesday after undergoing a cardiac procedure early Wednesday morning. The 81-year-old is the oldest active justice on the nations highest court and had survived past diagnoses of colon and pancreatic cancer.
SNIP
Justice Ginsburg reported experiencing anginal pain on the night of November 25th. The pain was later found to be related to narrowing in a main artery on the right side of the heart. While the exact treatment records are not available, doctors likely rectified the situation by opening up the narrowed area by inflating a small balloon located in the vessel, and then placing an expandable metal cage known as a stent to help keep the vessel open. Justice Ginsburg underwent this procedure successfully and is progressing with her recovery.
However, no medical intervention is without risk. And for surgical interventions in particular, that risk is often front-loaded: the chance of experiencing an adverse event is highest early on, and gradually falls in the weeks and months that follow. An example in the case of cardiac stents is stent thrombosis, when a clot forms in the stent and partially or completely blocks blood flow. This can lead to the very heart attack that placing the stent was trying to prevent. A recent review of a large international sample of patients led by Dr. Ron Waksman, associate director of the Division of Cardiology at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where Justice Ginsburg received her stent, found that 75 percent of these thrombosis events occurred within one year.
SNIP
elleng
(131,199 posts)HeiressofBickworth
(2,682 posts)She didn't have "cardiac surgery" in the sense that she had any surgical invasion of her heart. As I understand it, what she did have was a stent implanted in one or more blocked arteries. Like all medical procedures, there is some risk, but the over-all effect of a stent implant will be that she will feel BETTER than before. I had a stent implant in 2000 and I remember the effect -- felt better right away.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)But I have a family member who received a stent, and it was considered to be "heart surgery."
From the OP:
"After previously surviving colon and pancreatic cancer, the 81-year-old Supreme Court justice is reportedly 'resting comfortably after cardiac surgery Wednesday."
AndyTiedye
(23,500 posts)We need her on the court as long as possible, she is irreplaceable at this point and for the foreseeable future.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)mr_liberal
(1,017 posts)That makes her very replaceable imo.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Perhaps you can tell people why, so they don't draw the wrong conclusion.
mr_liberal
(1,017 posts)Ill let her speak for herself:
"During a public conversation at the University of Chicago Law School on Saturday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg yet again expressed her well-known misgivings about Roe v. Wadethat the Supreme Court went too far, too fast.
She said the court should have held only that the Texas law before it in Roe, which prohibited abortion unless necessary to save the life of the woman, was unconstitutional, leaving for the future the question of what other restrictions on abortion might be constitutional."
Justice Ginsburg contended, the court prevented the states from working out on their own how best to regulate abortion, short-circuiting the democratic process
Its not really opposed or opposes. She wasn't on the court back then, and Im assuming even though she disagrees with Roe she wouldn't be for overturning it now. I think ts extremely troubling though because she's wrong, abortion is a fundamental right so it shouldn't be up to the states, and because even though she wouldn't vote to overturn it herself, once she gone form the court I can imagine conservatives using her words to make the case for why it should be.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)by expressing it publicly.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)woolldog
(8,791 posts)It's too late now, so we just have to hang on and hope for the best (a Dem being elected in 2016)
mr_liberal
(1,017 posts)can use her as an issue in the 2016 election.
I agree though that she should retire, she should have years ago.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)pnwmom
(109,009 posts)above the needs of the country. She is the oldest Justice on the Court and her health is very much in question. We would have benefited from having a new Justice appointed by Obama while we held the Senate majority.
Because Justice Ginsburg was certain there wasn't a single possible appointee as good as she -- among the hundreds of possibilities -- we could end up with a 6 - 3 court for another twenty years.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)Unbelievable.
Puglover
(16,380 posts)elleng
(131,199 posts)pstokely
(10,531 posts)nt
Rstrstx
(1,399 posts)Remember 4-4 ties go to whoever won at the circuit level, and King was decided in favor of the government and IRS. If they waited and were forced to take a similar case down the road where the plaintiff had won, a 4-4 tie would pretty much gut the ACA. Just something to keep in mind.