[brooklin]

I would like to agree with all that are on this thread, but have they all had a parent with ms- quadradplegic.-, on the ventilator, with tube feeding, and going through the sixth or seventh bout of pneumonia. It's pretty easy to say we shouldn't end a life, but think about if it's your own loved one in that situation. Is this what they were? Should they continue to suffer because it is too hard for us to let go?
It's not a decision that I would wish for anyone to have to make.

[sweetliberty]

Death of convenience ping!

[sarasmom]

There is a difference between providing futile medical procedures to prolong death, and in providing comfort care measures at end of life.
Refusing to provide food and water, even via a tube, is not ceasing futile medical intervention at end of life.
It is starvation, and in the case of a medical patient,it is murder.
The laws are quietly being changed to allow for medically induced murder by starvation.
We will all die of something.
Decisions often have to be made as to when extreme forms of medical intervention is actually prolonging life, and when it is just prolonging death.
It is, and should allways be IMHO, a hard decision for everyone involved to make.Thats just how life is.
Providing basic food/water sustenance to even an obviously terminally ill patient should not even be open to questions.
Many severely disabled, but not otherwise terminally ill people require extraordinary medical intervention to live.Christopher Reaves, for example,needs a ventilator to live.Cut the power off on his ventilator, and he will die in minutes.
Terri Schiavo is not terminally ill.She is not on a ventillator.She only comes close to death when her husband and the Florida courts are allowed to intentionally starve her.
Put aside the cost and ability to pay for a moment, because both Christopher Reaves and Terri Schiavo have, or in Terri's case had, the funds to privately pay for the required medical treatment that sustains their non-terminally ill, but severely disabled lives for many years.
Mr.Reaves can still speak, and would loudly protest anyone turning off his resperator, for the few minutes he would live.
Terri Schiavo cant speak anymore, but twice she has desperately clung to life for days when her feeding tube was removed.
Both of these severely disabled people are not "terminally ill" by which I mean they are not actively in the final end stages of dying from either disease, trauma or physical organ shut down.
I submit that Terri Schiavo is in many respects a more viable candidate to receive long term basic comfort level medical care, than is Mr.Reaves.
We are not yet a socialist country, the USA, and we do not yet sanction euthanasia.

[TaxRelief]

I've been through it with both my Grandmother and my mother. My grandmother lived in my home, in my care until 3 hours before she passed away AT THE SAME TIME that we had very young children and babies. We never starved her. Never dehydrated her. We just took loving care of her until G-d called her home. (Yes, it was hard.)

[Coleus]

I'm sorry people have to endure such physical and emotional hardships in their lives.

It's not a decision that I would wish for anyone to have to make.>>>

Yes, it's a tough decision, that's why now in the USA we have DNR rules. But we must realize that the same God who created our lives has the power and authority to end that same life, it's not up to mere human mortals, sinners, to make such decisions. My friend's wife contracted MS right after college and marrying, very young, was not able to have children, she was a bright woman with an engineering degree and died in her late 30's suffering and losing her life during the prime of her life. 10 yrs. later he himself suffered a stroke and had to relearn how to walk, it's been 2 yrs. now and he is now walking a block without his cane, he's still living and suffering and enduring with a strong belief in God where he lives life to the fullest the best he can. It makes Satan very happy when we make the choice of death and take the power away from God calling his children before He wants them called.