I would like to address your posting...I, for one, appreciate the verses from the Bible, in fact, on one other thread, I admitted that my Biblical knowledge was poor, but I had remembered something about these verses, and there were posters who were kind enough to post them for me...so I, for one, do appreciate those verses...it should make us think...
And I also agree, that witholding nutrition and fluids via the feeding tube, does seem cruel...as I have said in my other posts, I thought that because we did not really know Terris wishes concretely, we should err on the side of life and let the tube remain...I do not know what Terri would have wanted...but you know what?...you do not know what she would want either....
The point is, there are so many people who are so nuts over this whole matter, that even if there was absolute, concrete proof, that Terri would have wanted to be let go, there are still folks out there, who would cry out in the name of Christianity, that she should not be allowed to have her wishes fulfilled...trying to substitute their wishes for hers....
I dont know how in the world to rectify this situation...
And if you want to talk about taking care of the sick, the elderly, ,and the infirm, then talk to me...I took care of my 15yr old son for 15 months, while he was dying from leukemia...I took care of my father at home, while he was dying with cancer...I took care of my mom at home, while she was dying with Alzheimers...
My son, I would have died for...I and his father, and our younger son, along with the doctors and nurses did everything in the world to cure him...it was not to be...
My mom and dad had made me know, long in advance what their wishes were...my brother being dead, I was the only child left to care for them, and carry out their wishes...dad, wished nothing done for him...no vents, no feeding tubes, no CPR....he wanted to be let go...his GP tried to force me to install a feeding tube, directly going against my dads wishes...dad was lucid enough to hear the GP, and told him to get out...I let dad go, in his own way, and fully aware of what he was doing...
Mom, while still lucid, also made me promise to give no vents, no feeding tubes, no CPR...she lived with me and my family, having turned the master bedroom, into her 'visiting and hospital' room...I offered her food and drink 6 times a day...I never forced her...when she felt like it, she ate and drank...when she refused food and drink, I never ever forced her...of course, the visiting nurse tried to force me to have a feeding tube put in...but mom seemed to hear her, and even in her Alzheimers dementia, hollered out to the nurse, that she did not want a feeding tube...and so mom also died on her own terms, in peace, and no pain...
But there are those radicals out there, who if given the slightest opening, would have assaulted my parents, installed a feeding tube, and then patted themselves on the back for having 'done good'...
Of course, my parents were already dying, their bodies were shutting down, and their lessening of taking in fluids and nutrition, is part of the natural process...my point is, some doctors and nurses, and some so called do-gooders, refuse to see some deaths as natural, and really try to install feeding tubes into everyone, no matter their state of health, no matter the patients wishes...
And one other thing...I have worked for years and years in nursing homes...I have cared for the old, the infirm, the demented, the physcially ill, and yes, even a few young people in vegetative state...I have given them the utmost respect(that means following their wishes, not my own), the utmost care, done my best to feed them and hydrate them with water(if that is what they wish), I change their dirty diapers(and assure them there is nothing to be ashamed of)utmost love(holding their hands when their families are not there, crying with them when they cry, laughing with them when they laugh), and I give them my all, when they are ready to die(there is no greater privilege than to hold someone in my arms as they are dying, and they go from my arms to the arms of God)
No one here is laughing at the death of Terri Shiavo...that is unthinkable...everyone here is saddened at her death..and as a mother who has lost her own son, I can tell you, I KNOW, how awful Terris parents are feeling..I KNOW, that sick feeling a parent gets in their stomach, when they believe their beloved child will die...I KNOW the throbbing in their heads, I KNOW their feeling of helplessness...and I KNOW, that I would also be doing everything they are doing, and would be pleading with anyone and everyone to please save my child...I am not hard hearted, I am not laughing, I am not scum....
I just dont what else can be done...I hope you appeciate my thoughts for what they are worth...