An elderly man takes his wife into the hospital after she suffers a heart attack and then is told he can’t take her home when she recovers. Increasingly frustrated with the poor care she is receiving in the hospital as her health deteriorates, the man complains and refuses to pay the hospital bills (still unable to take his wife home) in protest. In response, the state has his wife declared unfit to manage her own finances, overrides his power of attorney, and begins forcing his hand.
It’s Canadian content, but wrapped in a neat analogy involving Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell, how could you not want to click the link?
Will Truman 
Patrick Cahalan 
Cornelius 
wardsmith 
Tod Kelly 
Tom Van Dyke 
Murali 
James Hanley 
Borat: “I do a picture, only small, of the Tishnik Masacre. Where many Uzbeks…crushed!”
Kindly Gray Hippie: “How did you feel when you drew this?”
Borat: “Very proud!”.
KGH: “I’m just listening with sadness…a little sadness for your people…?”
Borat: “Yes…no, it is not sad. It is us who do the kill!”
When in doubt,
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If life were a Wendell Berry novella, the husband would do none of the above, opting instead to simply take her home without permission, effectively “stealing” his relative, disguised only by a baseball cap with lowered brim. Meanwhile, the investigating officer would be headed off by a long-winded country lawyer and the man’s ability to find a spot in the middle of the woods in which to bury the dead body and hide the graves with leaves. Unfortunately, the man can never return to the city in his favorite hat or shirt again.
Actually, I wrote the above a little jokingly before reading through the article on the link — and it’s really a similar situation as in the story — except with a more actively devious government action in real life.
Chapter 2: An elderly man taks his wife into the hospital after she suffers a heart attack and then is told he can’t take her home until she recovers. Having already accepted her impending demise, the frustrated husband begins spreading false allegations about the care she is receiving and pressuring his wife to agree to release, culminating in a final stand where he refuses to pay for her care. A passionate young Public Guardian investigates the case and finds that the accusations are baseless and that in her frail state, the elderly woman has fallen to dimentia. Suspicious of her husband’s motivation he discovers that the man is on a personal crusade, frequently telling his children that he wishes “they could just die together”. With time running out, he is finally successful in getting a certificate of incapability to resume her treatment and begins working to safe her life.
At the end of the novel, the reader discovers that neither the husband nor the Public Guardian actually exist and the elderly woman is the pawn in a virtual battle between two well-funded but opposing health organizations trying to score a broad political advantage.
@trizzlor, FTW
@trizzlor,
Yeah, that’s definitely more like it.
And to be pedantic, “The Minority Report” is a short story, not a novel.
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