Dehydration death seen as peaceful

The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | March 27, 2005 | Stacey Burling and Michael Vitez

[mondonico]

Dehydration death seen as peaceful "This is the way many, many people died over all of the millenniums," a doctor from Penn said. By Stacey Burling and Michael Vitez Inquirer Staff Writers

Terri Schiavo is dying now as many aged and sick people have for eons.

Though some people see letting her die of dehydration as inhumane, doctors say it is a surprisingly gentle process. [snip]

"It's a very painless and very compassionate way of dying," he said.

[snip] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[mondonico]

OK, let’s deconstruct this:

Terri Schiavo is dying now as many aged and sick people have for eons.

Tens of thousands of people die horrible deaths in auto accidents every year. What’s your point?

Though some people see letting her die of dehydration as inhumane, doctors say it is a surprisingly gentle process.

Which doctors? Mengele? Kevorkian?

"Nature has given us a wonderfully peaceful way to exit this life," said Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. "The dominant way that mammals die is that, at some point, they lose interest or the ability to eat or drink. The physiology and experience of people who are unable or refuse to eat or drink after progressive or advanced illness is one that is very gentle and very comfortable."

“Director of palliative medicine”—i.e., someone who is in the “final exit” business.

John Hansen-Flaschen, chief of pulmonary, allergy and critical care at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, made a similar point, saying, "This is the way many, many people died over all of the millenniums until medicine got so actively engaged in the process."

Again, what does this prove? “Many, many people” have died of cardiac arrest, cancer, infections, stroke, falling down, being eaten by large predators, etc. “all over the millenniums until medicine got so actively engaged in the process”—does that make such deaths “very gentle and very comfortable”?

Courts have ruled that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. By definition, she has no awareness of herself or her environment and no ability to experience pleasure, pain or, for that matter, thirst, Hansen-Flaschen said.

But, if it’s such a “very gentle and very comfortable” way to die, why so defensive about her ability to experience pain or thirst?

Paul Marik, director of the division of pulmonary and critical care at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said Schiavo may react reflexively to pain, but only the most primitive part of her brain, the brain stem, is working. The higher parts of her brain are incapable of perceiving that pain.

So, she DOES feel pain, but she can’t write an essay about it? This same guy would probably be horrified if he came home to find his son pulling the wings off flies. Is a brain-damaged woman any less worthy of concern?

"Pain is a conscious interpretation of what's happening," he said. "If you can't interact with the environment, if you're not awake and you're not conscious, you can't perceive pain."

Straw man-- she IS awake.

Schiavo, who began her ninth day without nutrition or water yesterday afternoon, will die of dehydration, not starvation, the doctors said. It will cause her kidneys to fail. Toxins will build up in her blood, eventually causing her heart to stop beating. Dehydrated patients gradually weaken, drift into a coma, and appear to die painlessly, Marik said.

“[A]ppear” to die painlessly. “Appear” means “ we don’t know.” ”

"It's a very painless and very compassionate way of dying," he said.

So, no need for lethal injection. Criminals sentenced to death should be executed this way, right?

Even a normal, healthy person would feel little discomfort after the first few days of thirst, the doctors said.

“little discomfort AFTER THE FIRST FEW DAYS”—I get it now, after the first 72 hours of hell, it’s actually quite pleasant—sort of like crucifixion. Maybe we could even use crucifixion instead of lethal injection.

Caregivers typically moisten the mouths of patients who have stopped eating and drinking, Byock said. Many, Hansen-Flaschen said, also give morphine, more to relieve the worries of relatives than to lessen pain.

I could use some morphine right now

[goldstategop]

Starvation is peaceful? Then why won't liberals accept it as an execution method for Death Row inmates and terrorists?

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[COBOL2Java]

"It's a very painless and very compassionate way of dying," he said.

Cool! We can get rid of all the electric chairs and death-by-injection tables and firing ranges in the US! Oh, and do we have any more gallows? I say let's replace them all with this new, painless and very compassionate way of dying for those on death row!

[DTogo]

So now we can discontinue and eliminate all U.N. relief agencies, and stop sending money to poor starving people in Third World nations?

After all, why deny them such a "peaceful" death...

[MarMema]

said Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine

Death culturist.

[mondonico]

My point is less about the specifics of the Schiavo case than about the intellectual contortions the advocates of death-by-dehydration-for-those-whose-life-isn't-worth-living.

I absolutely support an individual's right to specify that they don't want to be given food and water if they reach a Schiavo-like state. What articles like this are about, however, is making survivors feel OK about pulling the tube on grandma.

That's a topic that can and should be discussed, but not if folks are going to be dishonest from the get-go.

[wideawake]

I can't believe that all those evil celebrities banded together in the 1980s to publicize those millions of starving Africans.

Couldn't they see from the footage that those kids with bloated bellies and flies buzzing around them were having a great time, dying happily in a gentle, peaceful way?

[Al Gator]

FALDERAL AND BALDERDASH!!

Tales told of sailors at sea driven to desperation, drinking sea water and going mad.

Tales told of those in the deserts,found with mouths full of sand, driven mad by thirst.

Tales told of POWs drinking their own urine, driven mad by thirst.

I'd like to get ahold of this a$$hole and see how he feels after 7 days without water.

Maybe this commie pig would squeal a different tune.

Ya Think?

[Kenton]

How about some state that has capital punishment uses this logic to make starvation replace lethal injection?

STARVE MUMIA.

[ClaireSolt]

I regard this as offensive propaganda. So, no more pictures of starving children with flies in their eyes, ever. Ban them.

[blues_guitarist]

More claptrap from the right to die crowd.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

We're being told that everything we know about starvation is wrong. You know what that means? We can now save money on foreign aid to famine- struck nations because it's such a peaceful way to die. And farm subsidies? We don't need em!!!!

[Bahbah]

My point is less about the specifics of the Schiavo case than about the intellectual contortions the advocates of death-by-dehydration-for-those-whose-life-isn't-worth-living.

You are making your point very well.

[Larry Lucido]

Well, I think panties on the head can be exhilarating, from what I've read. So, I doubt we'll see any more hand-wringing about that, right?

[Piquaboy]

Till they try it out their self, they don't know s--t.

[chimera]

So, I guess I have a question. If these so-called "doctors" think it is no big deal, why don't they try it on themselves sometime, and then get back to us on just how "gentle" and "painless" it is? And, why wait? I mean, you might eventually end up just a "useless eater" anyway, so why take the time and trouble and consume resources that "others" might use better? Just get it over with. Think they'll be any takers? I don't.

[KenmcG414]

What about all the kids that die from starvation? Is that a peaceful death? These so-called experts make me sick!

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Tagline fix...

[TX Bluebonnet]

They told us it was a peaceful, euphoric way to day, yet they are giving her a morphine drip for pain. Hmmmm. How stupid do they think we are?