Fair point. I have no personal knowledge about her condition. I am relying on news accounts that she has been in "vegitative state" since about 1991. If those accounts are true -- which I think a judge could verify -- it would seem like it's time to let nature take its course.
But, more than anything, I do not think in matters like this that there can be any "policy level" decision. It is very difficult and very individual.
I know I would not want to be kept alive by artificial means for more than a decade. Nor would I want to do that to someone else. I do not consider that to be humane.
Like Terri, I have not put my wishes down on paper. I should. But, also again, I do not see it as the same as abortion. In one case, the patient is essentially already dead. Her room, her tube, her nurses and physicians should go to someone else. Especially since that is what her next-of-kin has requested. I don't see any other way to decide it.
Let me ask you this:
If you were an emergency dispatcher and you had one ambulace available to dispatch but you got two calls at the same time, one for someone who was probably dead and one for someone who might still be alive, to which call would you dispatch the ambulance?
They have to make these decisions every day. Nobody ever said it was easy.