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.
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.)
He won't. And the moment she dies his politcal career is over. And ought to be.
FL law calls for removal of custodial rights in event of a "conflict of interest". Schiavo has a new common law wife and two children, the conflict of interest is scathing. Judge Green has acted outside the law. On that alone Jeb should have acted...too late now, he won't do a damn thing.
"But to actually create some situation where we would be the source and control of what would eventually kill him, that would be murder."
Precisely. My grandfather also suffered from terminal Alzheimer's and had a DNR from the beginning of the disease. Unfortunately while his brain was ravaged the rest of his physical condition was outstanding.
At the end he was on a feeding tube and in a rather vegetative state. Finally the part of his brain that controlled breathing started to fail and he died of pneumonia. But he was kept fed and hydrated, and well-sedated at the end. It was very peaceful from what I was told.
There is a difference between not treating a terminal illness and purposely hastening someone's death.
I am sorry about your father. Alzheimer's is harder on the family than it is on the patient, in the long run. When grandpa finally passed on, it was a relief.