Media: Dying of Thirst is Excruciating Agony, Except if It’s Someone Like Terri Schiavo

Life News ^ | 8/11/14 | Wesley J. Smith

[wagglebee]

Health writer Larry Bernstein of the Washington Post has written an excruciating column about how awful and painful it is to die by thirst. The article laments–as any civilized person would–the potential mass deaths by dehydration of the Yazidi at the hand of the butchers of ISIS in Iraq.

Dying of dehydration is an awful death. From the piece:

I’m not about to start ranking the horrors visited on the human body this summer, from Ebola in West Africa to bombs and bullets in Gaza and Israel. But thousands of particularly excruciating deaths may soon be added to the list by the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group that is sweeping through parts of Iraq and establishing its own state.As this barbarism continues.

Bernstein did some research:

I asked Jeffrey Berns, president-elect of the National Kidney Foundation and a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania, what these children may be going through. “Thirst, as you probably know, is one of the most potent drives for behavior we have. It may be the most potent we have, more than even hunger,” he said. “People are going to be miserable.”

The body is about 60 percent water, and under normal conditions, he said…If it’s not replaced over time and dehydration becomes severe, cells throughout the body will begin to shrink as water moves out of them and into the blood stream, part of the body’s efforts to keep the organs in fluid. “All the cells will shrink,” he said, “but the ones that count are the brain cells. They don’t operate normally when they’re’ shrinking.”

Changes in mental status will follow, including confusion and ultimately coma, he said. As the brain becomes smaller, it takes up less room in the skull and blood vessels connecting it to the inside of the cranium can pull away and rupture. Without water, blood volume will decline and all the organs will start to fail, he said. Kidney failure will soon lead to disastrous consequences and ultimately death as blood volume continues to fall and waste products that should be eliminated from the body remain.

Yes, an awful, horrific death.

Except when inflicted on people like Terri Schiavo? That can’t be right.

This is a biological process–yet conscious and unconscious disabled and elderly alike are made to die of thirst throughout the country and much of the Western world through removal of tube-supplied sustenance.

How many times have we seen advocates for removing feeding tubes from the cognitively disabled sooooothingly assure us it is a peaceful, painless way to die? From a 2005 Chicago Tribune story about the pending death of Schiavo:

One of the main rationales of religious advocates and lawmakers seeking to keep Terri Schiavo alive through a feeding tube has been that removing her only source of nutrition and liquid would be cruel, leading to a “horrible and painful death,” in the words of one activist.

But many of the doctors and nurses who witness the consequences of removing such treatment from patients say withholding nourishment is a common—and largely painless—way of letting nature take its course for ill patients. They say many people near death actually choose to have their feeding tubes removed, which typically leads to a calm, peaceful death.

Yes, IF PEOPLE ARE ON THE VERGE OF DEATH BY CANCER or some other disease. In those cases, the death is not from thirst!

But the people we are discussing here are not dying other than having their water and food taken away. That’s a huge difference. The same process described in Bernstein’s piece happens to them.

Oh, and notice what Berns said about the size of the brain after dehydration: Terri’s shrunken brain was touted as proof she could feel nothing. Remember?

People in cognitively disabled conditions may not be able to cry out and beg for food–although I know of at least one case where that happened–because they don’t have the ability. But that doesn’t mean on the inside, unless given powerful drugs–Terri Schiavo wasn’t given that courtesy–they aren’t feeling the same pain as those poor people on the Iraq mountain.

And now Compassion and Choices and other assisted suicide organizations push suicide by thirst and starvation (VSED). From the C & C book, “Voluntary Stop Eating and Drinking:

Some call us because they feel overwhelmed by the symptoms of chronic and progressive illnesses that fill their days with misery and suffering. There are also those who may not be seriously ill but are simply “done.” After eight or nine decades of life, they want information about ways to gently slip away in a peaceful and dignified manner.

Shameful.

Add to that advocacy now for VSED-by-proxy that would force nursing homes to withhold oral sustenance to Alzheimer’s patients who asked to be starved and dehydrated to death in an advance directive–even if they willingly drink water and juices and eat food.

The elderly, the profoundly disabled, babies born with Down syndrome that have intestinal blockage, etc. are not a different species. They are people. Making them die of thirst is agonizing too. Those who push these kinds of deaths as merely “medical ethics:” Own it!

LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Human Exeptionalism.

[wagglebee]

How many times have we seen advocates for removing feeding tubes from the cognitively disabled sooooothingly assure us it is a peaceful, painless way to die?

Simply more proof that the media was making things up to justify Terri's murder.

[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

[COBOL2Java]

Howdy, Jeb! Still thinking of running?

[I want the USA back]

The left has compassion for convicted murderers, terrorists and abortionists. It really feels their pain.

The left gloats over the suffering of unborn babies, the elderly and people who it wants dead to promote “euthanasia.” (Schiavo). It doesn’t care one bit over their pain. In fact, it wants to increase it.

[samtheman]

There are so many reasons not to vote for Jeb... but this is an important one.

[TigersEye]

“Where there is life there is hope!” - Terri Schiavo

[GeronL]

“death with dignity” they call it

[trisham]

Add to that advocacy now for VSED-by-proxy that would force nursing homes to withhold oral sustenance to Alzheimer’s patients who asked to be starved and dehydrated to death in an advance directive–even if they willingly drink water and juices and eat food.

*******************************

Sorry! It's against policy. Next!

[Telepathic Intruder]

Liberals said you were politicizing Shiavo’s death if you disagreed with her brutal execution. Refusing to give a dying girl water is about the most cruel thing a person can do, but they enjoyed it as a victory against conservatives. She didn’t die peacefully in her sleep as they claimed she would; she died gasping for air as her organs failed. She was refused any visits from her immediate family.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Many of the exact same people(as well as the larger set of “leftists”), who promote “euthanasia” for innocent people; take to the streets to protest the death penalty for murderous monsters. The same chemicals that provide a peaceful “death with dignity” in “assisted suicides”, are decried as “barbaric”, when used on convicted murderers.

[12th_Monkey]

I only eat fish cause fish don’t feel pain when you kill’em......

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Ugh, don't even mention that piece of rat slime to me. That disgusting piece of slop who honored Hillary Clinton with the "Liberty medal" on the one year anniversary of Benghazi, just an absolutely disgusting middle finger to the families of Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods. The mans - if you can call Jeb Bush a man - character is absolute ZERO as far as I'm concerned and he should be nowhere near any position of authority, especially in government. It was like honoring a child rapist, that's how offensive I found that.

Look at her with this disgusting arrogant smug look on her face..."Liberty" medal my ASS.

[Fiji Hill]

If Jeb gets the GOP’s presidential nomination, I will be writing in Terri Schindler.

[Organic Panic]

I recall a few reassuring words from the people that killed Terri.

“Euphoria”
“Pleasant”
“Peaceful”
“Comfortable”

BULLMANURE!!! I had surgery once. I couldn’t drink water for three days. Even with the IV bag for fluids to keep me hydrated it was absolutely terrible. After two days without food you get over the hunger pangs. But without water all you think about is water.

[TigersEye]

100%

[FamiliarFace]

The media was complicit in Terri’s murder. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I’ve run across over the years that thought Terri was hooked up to all sorts of equipment, that she was in a coma, etc., based on what they read or heard from the MSM.

[wagglebee]

I can’t begin to tell you how many people I’ve run across over the years that thought Terri was hooked up to all sorts of equipment, that she was in a coma, etc., based on what they read or heard from the MSM.

I know exactly what you mean.

[wagglebee]

When I was 15 my appendix ruptured and by the time they figured out what the problem was and operated I had developed severe peritonitis and because of this they had to leave the incision open for several days.

For several days I had no fluids and then for another couple days I was given an ounce of shaved ice every hour. All I thought about was water, I tried to convince everyone who came into the room to give me water and when new nurses came on shift I tried to trick them into thinking that I was now allowed to have it. I remember saying I felt feverish and having them put a wet washcloth on my forehead which I would try to suck the water out of as soon as they turned away.