Posted on 03/23/2005 5:09:24 PM PST by Hildy
You are in your 20's, and you're visiting somebody in the hospital. You pass by a room where somebody is all contorted up, in a vegitative state. Would you say to your husband:
a)Honey, Don't ever let me live in that condition.
b )Honey, If I ever get like that, please make sure you do everything in your power, whatever the cost to you and our family, financially and emotionally, to keep me in that vegitative state no matter how long it takes. I want you to come and sit by my side every day and go home alone every night. I want to have strangers tend to my most personal needs. If I don't respond in four or five years, make sure I'm kept alive by a feeding tube in my stomach. And, most importantly, if you're not sure if I know what's going on around me, please err on the side of caution and keep me in that bed, indefinitely.
Remember, you're 24 years old. Which one would you pick?
I do not believe Terri contemplated this situation. It was more likely, when uttered, based on someone on full life support, not just on feeding. She loves her family (her parents and siblings) and always has. I believe she would want to live for them if she could.
I would say, and already have in my own living will, that if my death is imminent, and can only be temporarily prolonged by articial respiration or heart lung, then not to do so...but I have specifically indicated to keep the hydration and feeding going as long as possible.
AWESOME bumper sticker bump! Love it!
Probably doesn't cut it when you kill somebody in cold blood.
a)Honey, feel free to kill me.
b)Honey, please help me recover.
--Boot Hill
YOu didn't answer the queation. The whole issue is what Terri would have wanted. So I'm saying put yourself in the shoes of a 24 year old woman.
I'm sorry about your mom. Sadly, you did what a lot of people have had to do. It's what a court of appeals noted that Michael could have done. But he didn't. The Court noted that Michael could have just had the feeding tube removed. But instead he asked the Court to make the decision. And they did.
He tried three years of intensive therapy. The nurses and doctors testified under oath he was meticulous in his care of her; she never had a bedsore because of his care and he was demanding of nursing staff.
LOL
I feel sorry for you, Hildy....You must have had to pull someone's plug and you are trying to assuage the guilt that you feel. Don't bother answering me, I don't want to know.
It's a direct question. it's just hard for you to come to grips with the truth.
BTW is Michael at the bedside of the woman he claims he loves tonight?
If this is so important to him you think he would be there to support his wife at the end of her life.
I didn't ask what was "right" I asked what you would say.
Like my mom. She's 'toatally in her head' as you put it, she just can't make her body do anything. She wishes she had died. I wish, for her sake, she had too. Her life was over 8 years ago. Nothing but tears and anger since.
Depends on what the defenition of the word "VEGETATIVE" means. From my understanding, vegetables don't open their eyes when asked by doctors.
Couldn't have happened, I was in the service when I was 24, so I was going to die anyway.
what if there was very little brain activity and the Dr.'s said she PROBABLY didn't know what was going on and there was no chance of recovery.
How about .. honey don't ever sue someone claiming that I will need years of therapy and then instead of providing that therapy to me I want you to use the money to fight in the courts for the right to kill me instead of putting a serious effort into rehabilitation prior to make the life/death decision...
Neither.
If it could be proven she is, or in some similar state that is irreversable, would you change your mund about this case?
Hildy, I understand your frustration, but your "B" answer is basically, "When did you stop beating your dog?"
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