Dying with Dignity
Terri Schiavo’s case is a perfect example of why everyone of legal age should have a living will. Personally, I want to live until I’m at least 95 years old. But if something awful should happen (I’m praying that it doesn’t) and I end up in a vegetative state, I just want to let nature take its course. I know my family and friends will miss me (and I then), but I want to die with dignity and for me, that’s not going to happen if I’ve hooked up to machines trying to keep me alive. Particularly if after a certain period of time (say a year), multiple doctors agree that my chances of recovery are slim to none.
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6 Comments
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November 9, 2003 at 9:34 pm
Pat Branine
James, ever heard of “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”? I could see if the treatment being removed was a machine making her heart beat for her or breathing for her but these things she can do on her own, proof of life. That she cannot feed herself does not mean she doesn’t deserve to live, or that she requires a miracle, any more than any other quadrapaligic(sp?) to validate her existance.
October 23, 2003 at 7:42 pm
james_jackson
There was a letter written in by a reader of the Orlando Sentinel yesterday. Recycling came this morning, so I don’t have the paper & can’t find the letter online. I’ll have to paraphrase. It said something like:
Why do the people protesting outside the hospital in Pinnellas County think that God’s miracles are limited? If it’s God’s will that Terry Schaivo live, then the feeding tube can be removed & she will recover. If it’s not God’s will that she recover, then several people have kept her in this Hell on Earth long enough.
Amen to that.
October 23, 2003 at 12:21 pm
TsuKata
I think even if she had a living will, it would be contested. It seems like the family is convinced that the husband took the settlement money and never treated her, and that with proper treatment, she would have recovered or might still recover. I don’t know what I think about it. I’m all for the right to die, but what if the family is right? Seems a bit like sending an innocent person to the electric chair.
October 22, 2003 at 10:34 pm
Andrew
I want someone to kill me now. Do you anyone who’d be up for the job?
October 22, 2003 at 6:59 pm
Leigh Hanlon
I dislike how doctors and hospice workers do such a good job of making you forget that even though your loved ones are on morphine for their final days, what you’re really doing is starving and dehydrating them to death.
October 22, 2003 at 6:36 pm
Enigma
i agree with you. everyone knows i don’t want to be hooked up to machines and all that but i don’t have it in writing. i need to do that