Posted on 03/21/2005 4:05:17 PM PST by goldstategop
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
When my father, my aunt, my grandmother, my mother in law, died, they were terminal. They were elderly. They were allowed to die only when the doctors AND the immediate family ALL AGREED that it was the end, there was no hope. None of them opened their eyes or made a sound. Terry opens here eyes, she tries to speak. She is NOT in a coma. My beloved family members were in a coma, as if in a permanent sleep, eyes CLOSED.
I watched my Dad die slowly from Alzhiemers/Dementia, and there was no way I was going to smother him with a pillow/slip him a toxic cocktail/shoot him to make him die earlier just because he wasn't going to get better.
At the worst, we would have sedated him to die painless from whatever was killing him at the moment. He was on a DNR from the day he went in anyways, we knew he was never going to get better, so, letting him die from whatever was killing him was bad enough.
But to actually create some situation where we would be the source and control of what would eventually kill him, that would be murder.
He was not some flame thrower victim in combat who would not survive the trip to sick bay because of 100% burns, he was not injured with all limbs broken and bleeding profusely 100 miles from civilization and putting him out of his misery, he was in a nursing home/hospital.
So is Terry Schiavo.
Taking out the feeding tube is murder, and her husband plans to profit from it. I am privately convinced he has movie deals, book deals already in the works detailing "his" pain and suffering.
And that is all this is. HIS suffering he is worried about. I know it personnaly, I was relieved my father died last August because it meant I would not have to go see him like that and it meant my Mother would not have to go and see him die every day she went and did his laundry and feed him and bathe him like she did. It took away her pain of seeing him suffer. And that means more to me than my Dad's suffering because he was going to die, she is quite well and alive and has to carry on without him. I pitied her and was thankful he died so she didn't have to suffer watching him die.
JEB Bush needs to declare a state emergency, activate the National Guard and go inside that hospice and take her out and give her to her parents.
If she dies later, naturally, it would still be the right thing to do.
Your family members may have had a better chance of recovery than Terri Shiavo, whose cerebral cortex has been completely destroyed.
ping
Yes, Terri has the potential (longshot) to recover, speak, love, and live for decades.
People who say starvation is 'natural' and a 'kind' death are full of it! A lady in the nursing home my grandmother was in basically starved to death. She was pretty much in a sleep state most of the time. She hadn't had anything to eat since around Thanksgiving and she went about 3 weeks without something of substance to drink. By january she was down to 80# in weight and when she died around the first part of Feb, she weighed around 65# I think I heard. It doesn't take much to keep someone going who is doing nothing but lying in bed. She moaned and cried out all the time. Her daughter told her it was time to go, but she hung on and hung on! It was loooong, drawn out and sad!!
Little by little, the clinical criteria used to determine whether organ donors are "brain dead" will change to include other levels of brain damage now considered off limits.
After my mother had her stroke, I had to make so many tough decisions. I was the only decision-maker. I believe if you pray to the Heavenly Father for guidance, the right thing will be done. It's a heavy responsibility, to watch over the end of someone's life but, IMO, not the right of any human being to hasten another human being's end in a case such as this where life support is not in effect. I feel somewhat better that I chose for life, but it is still tough to reflect on.
BTW, when my mother was pregnant with me (a LONG time ago), since my father left her, it was suggested she abort. But here I am. So I like to think now we did the same favor for each other. Fern B., rest in peace.
"Your family members may have had a better chance of recovery than Terri Shiavo, whose cerebral cortex has been completely destroyed."
How do you know?
I was 16 when my mother had brain aneurysm at the age of 47. She was on a respirator. The last time I saw her before she passed, there was no response, and her eyes were closed.
Later that night, she had another leakage. The doctors told us that they would know within 48 hours if she would make it or not. They did brain scans and found she had no brain waves.
She passed 48 hours after the first aneurysm. An autopsy was performed and they found her brain was compressed due to all the blood.
My mother was brain dead and never would of been able to survive on her own.
I view her situation very different from Terri's. Terri can breath on her own, she can open her eyes and it appears she is aware of her family member.
This is a standard line used by Libs calling into Rush's show. Heard it all the time during the campaign, especially that ending, "and let me tell you why".
bttt
Ping.
I couldn't stand the stress, at first, of being the sole family caregiver in my mother's case, but our doctor's secretary said to me, "Why should you be spared?" I recognized the truth and wisdom in that. Indeed, why should I be spared? And, from then, I had the strength and felt it was an honor. Although, as you say, it's horrific to see your beloved in a deteriorated condition. At least, we can witness with them while they go through the valley.
Exactly.
(Sorry for your loss.)
if starving is natural and beautiful, Sally Struthers should be asking we take all the food away from the people
on whose behalf she begs for.
Aw, jeez, now you're in for it. What were you thinking, bringing cold hard facts to an emotional argument? Next thing you know you'll be arguing it's unconstitutional, when we know the Right Thing To Do® is to let her live so Congress can create jurisdiction for the federal courts based on public outcry.
I hardly even want to open myself up for the attacks by replying to or bumping your post, but I will. What's the point of replying to these people? All they want to do is vilify you for taking a second to think about the case, instead of simply emoting about it and how awful the courts are and how someone oughta pass a law, instead of agitating for the impeachment of the Florida judges who are at fault! If Republicans TRULY want this problem solved, they cannot solve it by taking the liberal route, passing more laws for more judges to misinterpret. They should be removing those judges in the FLORIDA legislature, which they are certainly not about to do.
These laws are a complete waste of time, padding lawyer pocketbooks and merely postponing the inevitable. We are under judicial rule, and until that is fixed, the killings will continue.
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