So refusing food and water to Terri is not killing her? If a parent locks their kid in a closet for two weeks and refuses to feed them, and the kid dies, the parent is not guilty of murder? Am I missing something?
" So refusing food and water to Terri is not killing her? ... Am I missing something? "
I am must be missing it,also.There are two issues here-removing the feeding tube and the prohibition of anything by mouth.
The NPO provision, as apparently ordered by the judge, made the feeding tube necessary.
As it would for any of us-if a judge ordered that none of us could eat, then we would require assistance for nourishment.
If the feeding tube is removed, but, the patient can swallow and eat, if assisted-then the whole situation changes.
Terri becomes just another of the tens of thousands of severely disabled patients who live at home, cared for by family or home health aides or in a nursing or rehab facility.
As a physician I've seen ventilators removed and feeding tubes removed on medically brain dead patients. This was only done after a long process involving family, clergy,consults with different specialists,specialized testing, hospital lawyers and counselors, family lawyers,etc.
I have never seen a process as one sided as this one.
There was never any doubt about the patient's condition and future, although it sometime took some family members awhile to come to the inevitable conclusion.
But, these were patients who could not breathe on their own, could not eat on their own, showed zero signs of any kind of awareness, did not open their eyes and follow objects and most certainly-did not laugh and smile.
To be quite frank-there was very little difference between these patients and a cadaver-except for the machines breathing life and sustenance into them.
They were moribund and even with the ventilators and IVs and feeding tubes, with injuries as severe as they suffered, we all knew that at some point, in the very near future, a massive infection would overwhelm their bodies and their organs would gradually start shutting down .
Death would be inevitable.
If the hospital had a power failure, they would die.
If there was a power failure at Terri's hospice-she would not die.
As painful as it can be to be at the bedside, when artificial life support is withdrawn,knowing that there is no doubt, no doubt whatsoever about the patient's future, made the decision more tolerable.
And the donation of the patient's organs also gave life to others.
I have never seen a patient in a supposedly PVS as alert as Terri- I saw the video where Terri laughed, quite heartily, when her father was recounting a happy family memory.That gave me chills-because quite honestly, I believed the media and assumed that Terri was in a PVS.
I have never, ever ,ever seen a case, nor would I be party to one, where a patient was able to eat and was purposefully starved.
With apparently, the blessings of the court.