Posted on 07/11/2007 8:13:06 PM PDT by monomaniac
PEACHTREE CITY, Georgia, July 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Marine candidate who nearly drowned four years ago in boot-camp met his death after his family agreed to let doctors remove his feeding tube.
"He smiled all week [since the tube was removed]. It was the first time. He seemed so happy, not in pain," his mother, Melia Isaac said of her son, who had been reduced to a comatose or minimal conscious state.
"I'm going to wonder for the rest of my life if I did the right thing. But I believe I did. He didn't have much of a life anymore. It was time to let go."
Josh Isaac was training at the US Marines Parris Island boot camp in South Carolina June 30, 2003, when he stopped breathing after leaping into a pool from a 10 foot platform during a routine combat survival class. Isaac went without air to his brain for approximately 8 to 10 minutes, which the Marines concluded could result in irreversible damage in a report.
Exactly four years to the day after the accident, doctors removed Josh Isaac's feeding tube and he died a week later at Dogwood Health and Rehabilitation Center in Fairburn. His funeral was held today in Peachtree City.
However, pro-life advocates pointed out that the manner of Isaac's death carries many similarities to Terri Schiavo's dehydration death in 2005 after her feeding tube was similarly withdrawn.
"You dehydrate somebody not because they're in pain, but because either A: they're dying, or B: their life is not worth living," Alex Schadenberg, a bioethics expert from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition told LifeSiteNews.com.
Schadenberg noted that any arguments to remove Isaac's feeding tube on account of "pain" does not make sense, since modern medicine can treat every sort of pain except neuropathic pain. If Isaac were truly in pain, it would cast doubt on the quality of care given him by medical professionals, who should have been able to make him pain-free.
Isaac died nearly 8 days after the feeding tube was withdrawn. Although medical science indicates the body on average takes 10-14 days to experience organ failure from dehydration, reports and Melia's own statement indicate that the removal of the feeding either caused or expedited Isaac's organ failure, indicating that he did not die a natural death. According to Schadenberg, removing the feeding tube would have been morally licit if Isaac was about to die of natural causes, but it could never be the direct cause of his death.
"Allowing them to die naturally is morally fine; causing their death is morally wrong," said Schadenberg. "By intentionally dehydrating them that's an intentional causation of death."
http://content.times-herald.com/292194643543055.bsp
Like the Laura Laughlin case, another quiet instance on starvation and dehydration has taken place somewhere in our country.
A while back, there was another disabled young woman named Laura Laughlin in Missouri. She was very similiar to Terri Schiavo and died not too long ago.
It was rumored that husband pulled her feeding tube and she starved and dehydrated her death but this was not confirmed. It unknown how exactly Laura Laughlin died.
It would be a surprise if she was starved and dehydrated to death given that her web site was receiving quite a bit of attention.
Nevertheless, the husband has done good by starting a nice foundation in Laura Laughlin’s Memory. It has gotten off to a good start and will continue to fund research to help brain injured patients.
Another person who was cognitively disabled has been Debbie Rich.
She received brain damage from a car accident in 2003.
Addition, Debbie also received severe damage to her lungs which was the primary cause of her death.
Reading the posts, the husband took good care of her for 4 years and never left her side. He provided Debbie with therapy right to the end.
Fortunately, Debbie was not starved and dehydrated to death; a method of death that has been deemed morally and medically unacceptable by a large number of people.
However, the husband did give up his efforts and did begin to think of Debbie’s wishes.
In his posts, I believe the care just became too burdensome.
The lung damage was the real problem rather than her brain damage.
Below is the last post:
DEBBIE’S FINAL JOURNEY
July 8, 2007
This morning at 12:27 am I lost a great mother of two kids,
wife, and the best friend I will ever have. Debbie pasted away at her
home with Krystal, Janet, Helen, Gerald, and I at her bed side. It all
started around 7:00 pm with heavy breathing noises and her
oxygen level dropped to 30%. We all got closer and held hands
with Debbie for thirty minutes then Debbie’s stats got better. I
learned tonight that people do not just pass away. It took over 5
hours for the whole process to take place.
Remember, all brain injuries are different. Debbie had a lung
issue that cost her life. After Debbie’s funeral, I will finish the web
page and if only one person’s life is helped, it will be all worth it.
We want to thank everyone for their support and prayers through
out the past 4 years.
-Jerrall
Please keep Debbie Rich in your prayers.
So far 2 people have gone who had major websites: Laura Laughlin and Debbie Rich.
4 other people still needs prayers on hope and encouragement:
Chris Barnes - http://chrisbarnes.blogharbor.com/
Tori Schmanski - http://pray4tori.com/
Michael Mobely - http://www.justiceformichael.com/index.html
Kathleen Davey - http://www.getwellkathleen.us/index.htm
All 4 of these individuals have the same things in common:
They all have anoxic brain damage.
They have dependance on a feeding tube (not 100%).
They are all cognivtely impaired and similiar to Terri Schiavo.
They have all had Stem Cell Therapy from China.
They all need prayers, financial help and medical help.
More time and energy need to be put into caring for these individuals.
The people I mentioned are greatly disabled. They are alive because they have loving guardians that allow them to stay alive. However, as time passes that could change if the guardian doesn’t see the improvement they want to see or if their care becomes too burdonsome to live with. In that case, there is nothing that can stop the guardians from advocating for their deaths. These people are vulnerable and some legal instrument needs to be in force to protect them.
Yep, me too! Everyone in my family agrees with this, also.
I predict about 5,000 posts to this thread by the end. A few suspensins and maybe a couple bannings, too.
I think the mother was in a better situation then anyone else to know how long to let this go on.
God Bless her.
A few important points:
1) Dehydration” is definitely NOT the same as “pulling the plug.” Dehydration-killing is the deliberate killing of a person by denying them a basic human need-water. “Pulling the plug” is withdrawal of life-sustaining equipment.
2) Dehydration is extremely painful to anyone who has any sensation whatsoever, even if they are judged to be “comatose.”
2) “Comatose” is a word for “we don’t know what their brain is doing.” Many, many people who have “awakened” from a “coma” knew and felt what was happening to them while they were unable to respond.
3) Comatose people don’t smile. Their faces might however be seen to grimace as the muscles contract from dehydration.
How the heck did the recruit remain underwater for that long a period of time? A DI and instructors are with recruits every minute of the day.
Was he in a comatose state prior to pulling the tube?
They mention that he was smiling all week after pulling the tube. If he was in a coma how is that possible?
If he wasn't in a coma, how could the doctor continuance such an action?
You mean, kill you? Let’s call it what it is. Murder.
“On the off chance that the person feels pain wouldn’t it be more humane to cut their throat? I mean if you’re going to kill the person it seems to me that you should have the guts to do it properly.”
Or use lethal injections.
Murder is Murder, no matter how you do it, whether by gunfire, stabbing, bombing, strangling, poison or starvation/dehydration.
Lethal Injection, at least the exspurts (spelling intentional) claim, is at least painless.
Really? I'd prefer they shoot me in the head. It's faster, and in the event I am able to comprehend what is going on, it seems much more humane and less horrifying than two-weeks of starvation/dehydration.
“America is dying.”
No it’s dead, now it’s rotting.
Yep.
bump
I Somewhat agree. Many people long for a death that is quick and painless; such as dying in one’s sleep. Unfortunately, this is not always so if a person has very debilitating terminal cancer. They may anguish for weeks before dying even though medical professionals do a good job at controlling pain and discomfort.
Subjecting someone to starvation and dehydration even if medically controlled is a prolonged process that should be avoided.
However, in the case of brain injured patients, they sometimes tend to be biologgically tenacious; meaning they won’t die when someone wants they to.
Depriving these people of food and water is a very aggressive approach to starting a process that will kill them.
No one can survive without food and water indefinitely.
Removing someone’s feeding tube if they not actively dying has one intent; To cause their death and kill them.
Even pulling the plug like with ventilator, the intent is not as strong as people sometimes survive after the ventilator is pulled.
KAQ (Karen Ann Quilen) was disconnected from a ventilator because the family felt it was overly burdonsome and causing her discomfort.
KAQ also had feeding tube. The family did not pull this and KAQ died of natural causes many years later.
When the family was asked on why they didn’t pull KAQ’s feeding tube, the family responded “It’s her nourishment.”
You slice somebody’s neck open to save your own life.
That’s all these people are doing. They aren’t doing it for the benefit of the disabled one, they are doing it for personal expedience.
Let them go, pull the plug, all the euphemisms are used to hide the fact that this is a horrid way to die. People can go to jail for starving and dehydrating their pets to death. But a disabled person? Useless and not worthy of the basic compassion shown to animals.
It would be far more compassionate to put a bullet in their heads, give lethal injection or slash their throats.
I think we can all agree that in most situations it is morally wrong to cut someone’s throat.
Did you get the point I was trying to make? It’s one thing to disconnect a machine that is operating the heart and lungs. In those cases the patient is usually gone pretty quickly. That is how you define a machine that is keeping someone “artificially” alive.
It’s a whole different story to deny food or water. If you disagree you can try locking yourself in a room without either for a week or two.
Denying a person food and water is just a slow act of murder for cowards who can’t look their victim in the eyes.
So what would you do if there’s no brain activity?
Assume they are a member of the United States Senate.
;-)
FWIW, I've told my next of kin to euthanize me if they must, but never to starve/dehydrate me to death.
Please see my post #35.
Great post, agree completely.
Starving and Dehydrating someone to death regardless of the person’s condition (not dying) and whether the practice is done by the removal of feeding tube or by natural means is a cruel inhumane process ON ITS FACE.
When I say ON IT FACE, I mean the whole sense of it.
Starvation and Dehydration is something that we can’t do to a dog, a deathrow imate or terrorists.
And yet the practice of starvation and dehydration was done to Terri and this individual.
The fact that feeding tube was simply removed changes little.
Issac was denied food and water.
Issac’s death was caused by starvation and dehydration.
It should also be noted that the provision of food and water is a basic humanitarian right.
Children in other countries die from lack of food and water.
Billions of dollars are sent each year to give these children food and water.
The provision of food and water is also a basic need under Maslow’s hiarchitory of Needs just like shelter.
So ON THE FACE OF IT, starvation and dehydration whether it be by removal of a feeding tube or by natural means is a inhumane process.
Issac was subjected to this inhumane process.
Issac was not dying.
Issac was deprived of the basic humanitarian right to food and water (feeding tube or natural means).
This is not the same as witholding a ventilator or kidney dialysis as those are true life support and person’s death are caused by organ failure.
In addition, starvation and dehydration is rather prolonged process as we have seen.
Issac’s death by a removal of feeding tube fell under the preumbra of starvation and dehydration, an act that is cruel and inhumane.
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