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Prolonging Life…
I think most couples, at some point, have talked about whether they’d want to be kept alive artificially or not. It’s just something that eventually comes up. Wifey™ and I have both told each other that we wouldn’t want to be kept alive if there was no hope of living a quality life afterwards. And here enters the problem…
Michael and Terri Schiavo had the same discussion. They made their decisions as a married couple and thought that was good enough. Unfortunately, how do you prove it. It’s not like we all break out a legal pad and write this stuff down. All we can do is hope that our significant other will abide by our wishes and let us die.
Then enter the parents. I can see their point, so a degree. They don’t want to lose their daughter. Unfortunately they aren’t being realistic. All of the doctors have agreed that Terri is in a “persistant vegetative state”. Meaning, that she feels, hears and sees absolutely nothing at all. Nourishing her body with fluids keeps it alive, keeps her organs alive, but her brain is dead, therefore, she’s not aware of any of it. Her parents claim that she shows signs of recognizing them by blinking. The doctors explain it as involuntary spasms. Over a decade has gone by and the doctors agree that there is absolutely no hope of Terri ever coming back. She’s a dead woman in an body that remains alive.
And so we come to the a decade long fight between her family and her husband, as to whether to keep her alive or finally let her rest in peace. It comes down to pulling out her feeding tube and allowing nature to take over. Essentially, you’d be starving her body of the nutrients to keep it alive and as a result, she would pass away. The doctors and her husband agree that doing so, she won’t feel a thing. Her parents call it murder by starvation. They insist that somewhere in there, she’s aware of what’s going on.
It all began with a heart attack brought on by an eating disorder, leaving her brain damaged. Michael sued the gynecologist that treated Terri, saying that the doctor never asked about her medical or eating history. Eventually he won a $1 million dollar settlement‚Äî$300,000 for himself and $700,000 for Terri’s medical expenses. The day of the settlement, Terri’s parent’s confronted Michael about sharing the settlement money with them and when he didn’t, the fight we are all aware of now began. So, you have to wonder… is this all motivated by money? Michael has been offered up to a million dollars by a private source to walk away and let the parent’s take care of Terri. He’s also said that any money left over when she’s dies would be donated. Today, only about $40,000 is left of that original million dollar settlement. Personally, I think it’s about him trying to abide by his wife’s wishes. And her parents just don’t want to let her go. And I think they are both motivated by the fact that this has gone on so long that they both just want to get their way.
The part of this whole thing that I find somewhat unnerving is that Governor Jeb Bush is involved in trying to keep Terri “alive”. And then to push it a step further, his brother, President George Bush returns from vacation to sign a bill to keep Terri “alive”. And even Congress is getting involved now. So what started out as a decision between a married couple has now turned into political grandstanding. Pretty scary if you ask me. Even though I wouldn’t want to be kept alive, and even though Wifey™ knows that and tries to grant my wishes, I could be kept “alive” against my will because of a court’s decision based on a bill quickly pushed through by the President. Ugh.
Anyhow, for anyone reading this: I don’t want to be kept alive artificially if I’m laying in a bed, drooling all over myself, crapping my pants, unable to live a quality life. I don’t need anyone trying to keep me alive for their own selfish reasons. And don’t spout off your religious crap to me. Let’s put you in a vegetative state and see if you’d want to be kept alive. At least Terri is brain dead and has no clue what’s going on right now. It’d be a lot worse if you were laying there fully aware of everything, just wishing to die but having no way to let anyone know.
All I can hope is that she passes away before another court forces a feeding tube down her throat to keep her body alive for another decade.
Additional Information added March 24th:
Florida courts have ruled that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, a condition caused by extensive damage to the cortex and other parts of the brain that are responsible for consciousness, higher thinking, memory or even sensations such as pain, hunger and thirst.
“She’s not experiencing hunger – she’s not experiencing anything,” Albin says.
Patients in such a state don’t get better because the body is unable to repair such a massive injury to the brain, says James Bernat, a neurologist at the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H.
“If you’re in a state like this for three months or more, you’re chance of recovery is zero,” Albin says.
The condition is confusing because patients in a persistent vegetative state still have the use of a primitive part of the brain, the stem. The brain stem allows them to go through sleep-wake cycles, keeps them breathing and produces facial expressions that can make it look as though they are aware of their surroundings, Albin says.
But those movements are merely reflexes, says Bruce Sigsbee, a neurologist in Rockport, Maine.
Additional Information added March 31st:
The Rev. Frank Pavone was with the Schindlers during their final visit. He said, “This is not only a death with all the sadness that brings, this is a killing. And for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed, but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this, and we pray that it will never happen again.” (More reaction)
From the Vatican, Cardinal Renato Martino, prefect for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said Terri Schiavo’s death was “nothing else but murder.”
All I can say is that finally she’s at peace. A lot of religious people have been calling this a murder. The problem with that is that she was already dead. Her spirit had gone and all that was left was a body full of twitches and reflexes. It’s funny how religious people seem to be the most hypocritical of everyone. They stand beside their bible proclaiming what GOD would want, when in reality, no religious person should take it upon themselves to speak for GOD. Religious people are the ones that try to take away a mother’s choice to have a baby or not. When they don’t get their way, they splatter blood on people coming out of abortion clinics and even go so far as to threaten the doctors and blow up the clinics. So, the right to life only pertains to those lives you deem worthy. It’s okay to take a life to save one is basically what they’re saying.
In the case of Terri Schiavo, rather than letting her die naturally, the way GOD might have wanted, these religious zealots stand around trying to force her to stay “alive”. Even her parents have said that if she had a living will, they probably wouldn’t have followed her wishes. The real atrocity is that a human being couldn’t have her final wishes followed. She didn’t want to have her body preserved for fifteen years in this vegetative state. The real atrocity is that the courts made a decision and the Congress and President and Governor tried to intervene and override those decisions. Seems like an abuse of power to me which I’m sure will be on the lips of news programs in the weeks to come.
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7 Responses to 'Prolonging Life…'
It all began with a heart attack brought on by an eating disorder, leaving her brain damaged. Michael sued the gynecologist that treated Terri, saying that the doctor never asked about her medical or eating history.
I must have missed that part somewhere. What’s a gynecologist have to do with an eating disorder. Or did she go to one like I did a few years ago, who told her that she was obese even though she was a healthy weight?
Anyway… the whole thing is tragic no matter whose side you’re on. It’s easy to get caught up in the video tape of the poor girl and think “people are trying to starve her to death”. The thing is that people need to look beyond the tragedy at hand and focus on the real issues behind it.
The fact is that if you are married, your spouse makes the decisions on these matters — unless you have a living will. It’s scary enough that people want the courts to be able to come into your hospital room and dictate whether or not you live or die, when you aren’t in a position to make that decision yourself. What’s REALLY scary is that when you think about it, she’s actually better off in this state. She can’t make a decision for herself, so it’s up to her husband, somebody who should and does know what she wants, to make the decision that she would make, if she could. If Terri Schiavo was eighty years old, of sound mind, dying of cancer and in chronic pain, could she make the decision to let someone else put her out of her misery? Not without putting the plug-puller at risk of seeing some serious jail time if convicted of manslaughter.
Hopefully two things will come out of this case, regardless of whether she dies or the parents get their way and keep her a vegetable for the next forty years: 1. More people will realize the importance of a living will, so something like this doesn’t happen to them. 2. People will start looking more seriously at the issue of euthanasia.
The parents are trying to take the case to the Supreme Court, but seeing as how they’ve turned it down twice already, that probably won’t happen, and the lower court’s decision of removing the feeding tube will stand. Otherwise, that will set an ugly, ugly precedent. Every single law in this country dealing with spousal power of attorney will be on shaky ground, and then what?
I have no clue what a gynecologist has to do with an eating disorder, but there’s more information here.
It really is tragic. It’s tragic for them as a family, but also for all of us and our rights. Logically, it should be an open and shut case. Your significant other should make the decision based on conversations you had. Like I may or may not have eluded to though, there’s nothing in writing. That’s where the living will comes into play. But realistically, who thinks of that stuff when you’re in your 20’s. You tell your siginificant other your wishes and hope they are carried out… not thinking that your parents are going to try to keep you “alive” against your will.
I think what’s annoying me the most are these religious zealots who don’t believe people have a choice in their own lives. They won’t let you have an abortion, but also don’t open up their home to all of the children they are trying to “save”. Hey, if you want people having kids against their will, then you better be ready to raise them. They say she’s being starved to death, but fail to realize that she’s already dead. Ain’t nobody home in there. Her body is the only thing that’s being fed.
Personally, the only comfort I have is knowing that my wife will make a decision based on my wishes, if that were to happen to me. The fact that this ended up in court at all is frightening. Where does it end?
Your new layout looks really nice!
I reassured Katie the other day that I would off her immediately if she ever was reduced to a persistent vegetative state.
Haha, that’s what boyfriends are for, Cam. To off their girlfriends should they become a vegetable. Might be better off just shoving her drooling ass out into traffic, then you won’t have the spend the good part of a decade trying to do it legally. 🙂
Erm…
I Hate Terri Schiavo’s Parents
I’m officially convinced that Terri Shiavo’s parents are sick selfish bastards who shouldn’t have bred in the first place. I was reading Time yesterday, and it mentioned that her parents have said that even if Terri had a living will that stated her…