Let us agree that no individual is ever a vegetable, despite terms that attempt to describe a person as such. This terminology serves only to dehumanize an individual, thus making it all the more easier to terminate a life. We are uniquely human.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:13,14)
Regardless of Terri's condition, if her parents were willing to care for her, they should have been allowed to do so. But with the strike of a gavel, and the decision announced, an innocent human being was murder. Our executive and legislative branches of government made a half hearted effort to reinstate Terri's feeding tube. But in the end ONE judge said she will die. And Terri did.
God have mercy on us all.
I too cringe whenever I hear someone described as a "vegetable."
Sadly, many in the public have glommed on to that word, the way they glommed on to the similarly dehumanizing "fetus."
It's a huge propaganda victory for the Culture of Death, that they have had such popular success with their Orwellian use of language.
We've witnessed many Orwellian moments in the last couple of weeks.
One of the most hilarious, if it were not so seriously wrong, was Dan Abrams's insistence that "starvation" is not "starvation" --if it's the patient's "choice" to undergo it.
Kind of like, a "baby" is not a "baby" -- unless it's the mother's "choice."