Posted on 03/03/2005 2:44:21 PM PST by CHARLITE
Here is the rule that should be. After a month of intrense care, if they put food in front of you and you can't eat it to survive, sayanora.
Life is too precious to get stuck in bed with bedsores and grieving relatives around you. Either "function", or "leave".
So you won't be surviving a six-week recovery in a body cast.
HAH! You certainly don't mince words.
I assume you are being sarcastic. If not, by your standard, I would have been pushing up daisies thirty years ago.
As medical technology advances, these are questions that will have to be answered.
The big lesson here is: Make your wishes known, in writing, because you never know what can happen.
It is not out of the realm of possiblity to me that Terri indeed would NOT want to have her suffering dragged out as it has been. (I sure wouldn't) But we will never know, because there is no record.
Bones
That would kill all quadriplegics despite their obvious consciousness and mental abilities. You ignore all levels of "function" that don't involve the hand and arm and swallowing.
I demand to know why everyone thinks this is any of their business. Don’t any of these “Save Terri” groups ever stop to think that maybe the facts as presented in court and reviewed multiple times are correct and Terri would not want to live like this? Her family has said they would still fight on even if they knew for sure that Terri said she would not want to live like this. They also said even if she had to have all of her limbs amputated, they still would want to keep her on life support against her wishes. To me that is extremely cruel and heartless.
Okay, lets assume for arguments sake that you are correct...... why then would you think it humain to "put her out of her misery" by slow dehydration and starvation????????????????
Have you ever know of a dog who was put out of his misery by this method? Of course not! It's cruel and heartless, and totally unthinkable!
This case sucks big time. She is *not* coming back, but who calls the shots as to when her life is ended? The law says her husband does.
I am a supporter of the right to die with dignity, but she left no written instructions or anything like that. And if they do remove the feeding tube, it is going to be a slow death (with the assumption being that she is not cognitive...that assumption part scares me - what if she feels pain?).
The best case scenario to me would be they let her go and she feels nothing, not a bit. But, as it stands, unless the medical team produces something more definitive about her mental state, she should be kept alive.
You mean like Christopher Reeves?
I seriously believe that another judge needs to rule on a suit brought with this current judge as defendant. Sentence the guy to two weeks without food and water, and see if he survives. In fact, if this were attempted as a way to execute someone on death row, people would be calling it cruel and unusual punishment. And this woman has committed no crime!
Christopher Reeves would have been dead and buried within a month of his horseback riding accident.
Next target: Men/women/children who cannot feed themselves without help. After that, men/women/children who can feed themselves but cannot make a logical decision as to just why they have to feed themselves (mentally handi-capped); after that...? It's called the slippery slope..... One sign of humanity gone amock....the inability to even see humanity in some people....
Also, if you're thinking you might want to be starved to death, specify whether or not you want to allow food or water to be withheld by a consensus of surviving relatives, or whether you would wish to require that it be withheld. After all, it's one thing to say you would rather starve than sit unloved in an instution in a world where nobody cared whether you lived or died; it's quite another to say that you'd rather starve than be doted over by loving parents and kinfolk.
I got a few "reactions", that's for sure!
Please let me express a little more how I feel.
First of all, this messaage from Lauren BaRecall which was nothing but the link to the Terry page had the most profound effect on me. It is hard not to love what you see in her. It is very clear from these photos she is still "there" to some extent, and probably concious even though encased in the "tomb" of her body.
My concern is that we are being led step wise by lawyers and by the medicos (people who care a great deal about the money and/or the "fame" in these issues - greed and ego) into becoming a nation of "victims". If it doesn't stop we will lose everything improtant to us, our lives, our country, our health, our families, and our spirit.
If she cannot respond in a way that leaves no doubt that she is asking for more life then I would favor pulling the plug. Life isn't "over" when you die. It changes. She'll be back again. I know that, even if some of you reading this don't.
If she can "ask" in some way to stay with us then fine, pay whatever it costs, and let her continue to learn in whatever state she may be in. But if you cannot communicate well enough to ask her, and then get and clear answer that EVERYONE agrees is an answer, then let's not prolong her trial. She must be sufferring terribly if she can understand but in no way "respond" and "interact". How would YOU feel?
It would be cruel to keep her in such a prison of totally inflow, no outflow.
Wonderful idea! Let's cover your mouth with duct tape, tie your head, hands and feet to the bed rails, and ask if you want to live. If you say that you do, in a language clear enough for us to understand, then you get to live. If not, sayanora.
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