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The holocaust started with euthanasia under the semantic veneer of 'mercy killing.' Funny advocates for murdered Terri Schiavo use the same phrase...

Jacqueline Harvey jch0066@unt.edu Graduate Student and NT Alumna

"You should put your wishes in writing or contract a living will."

Which is precisely why Terri shouldn't be killed. She has never expressed her intent on these matters, except, allegedly, to the guy who is going to get her $750K med mal award when she dies....he has every motivation to lie and we haven't heard from her.

In such a circumstance, it is a no-brainer: you side with life.

"The courts have already found by clear and convincing evidence that this woman didn't want to be kept alive like this," and to pass a law that opposes that is a violation of her civil liberties.

Lie. All they had was some off-hand remark that she may or may not have made at age 26 about not wanting to be "kept alive like that." No documentation whatsoever, and certainly no indication she wanted to starve to death.

"The powers of separation were violated in a big, big way. And regardless of what you feel personally, ethically or morally, there are bigger questions regarding whether the legislature over-stepped it's bounds."

Even bigger lie. The only thing being violated here is the unchecked power of the tyrranical judiciary. Governors and legislators should CONSTANTLY be undoing bad court decisions with new legislation--or better yet, impeaching rogue judges.

There is no honesty, integrity or compassion in living with a girl friend, having children by her while your wife is tragically ill, not to mention fighting with her parents over a settlement. If Terri's so called husband had any of the "right stuff" he would not have abandoned the marriage vows so that he could get on with his life. This situation is so sad, and the husband has lost the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that we are more than animals.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O, no, it is an ever- fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
William Shakespeare

At what point do the abilities of law and medicine make gods of men?

Excellent question. I'll venture an opinion about when "medicine makes gods of men". When medicine has within its means to prolong life instead of death, but the decision is made to prolong death, medicine has made a god of men. When medicine has the means and technology to save a life, but chooses to withold those methods and technology based on arbitary definitions of "quality of life" then medicine has made a god of men. No man can determine the quality of another man's life.

In other words, medicine is in the business of saving lives. Period. The natural death process should not be tampered with, but removing a feeding tube from someone who is being "forced fed" and dying is entirely different from removing a tube from someone who is not dying and needs it to sustain life. As of now, Terri Schindler is not dying. The gods would be those who choose to remove her tube.

I've sat on both sides of the fence and seen first hand how feeding tubes can save lives or prolong death temporarily.