Does your state allow this type of killing?
Do you think we should allow such killing?
Since the Karen Ann Quinlin (sp?) case of 10-15 years ago, some states began making laws regarding this issue. Many institutions were keeping patients alive by artificial means in order to receive the medicaid payments, nothing more. These laws have merit, the Shiavo case notwithstanding.
Do you suppose artificial nutrition and hydration means a feeding tube? Or does it include natural nutrition and hydration supplied by another person (such as spoon feeding or inserting water into the mouth)?
I think that if we don't like it, we should petition the legislature, and stop pretending that Judge Greer invented the law.
Here's my question to the MS supporters:
For all the people who say, "Terri is/was a vegetable" and "Terri wouldn't have wanted to live this way."
Imagine Terri was your mother. Would you do to her what Michael Schiavo has done to Terri?
This is the video that should be shown on the news everynight - it is even more powerful than the balloon video.
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/ccb/videos/Terri_Big_Eyes.rm
You need Real Player to watch this, available free on the internet.
This is not reflex action - she heard the doctor, she opened her eyes as wide as she could to impress him.
Even Fox news has ignored this clip.
Someone told me that every state but Illinois now has this type of law. We have a lot of work to do.
All states do except for Illinois.
I can understand not keeping people alive with machines such as heart and lung and dialisis machines, when there is no hope for treatment or recovery. Keeping them artificially alive serves little purpose if they are not contributing to the society or the family life, and a moral case can be made that is is wrong to prolong suffering by artificial means just to preserve an artificial life that has no hope of survival without artificial means.
But that is a far cry from simply removing a feeding tube, when all other bodily functions work without mechanical means. In Terri's case, I believe it was a horribly misguided and immoral decision. If a person can swallow food and water, or even if they need the tube for convenience sake (i.e. because nobody has the time or inclination to help them bring food and water to their mouth) it is, in my judgement, immoral to deny them food and water.
What happened to Terri - the demand that no food or water be fed to her by the mouth - amounts to murder in my opinion. This was a horribly wrong decision and I am wholly dismayed at the judicial system for not recognizing the immorality - and indeed the illegality - of their decision to deprive her of food and water by mouth.
That Michael Shiavo claims that Terri once said in passing "I would not want to live like that" - not even describing what "that" she was talking about (i.e. a heart & lung machine, or a feeding tube?) is considered clear and convincing evidence of a desire to die if stricken with her specific condition was an atrocious and frightful decision.
A feeding tube amounts to very little in raw costs and any claim of the financial burden of a feeding tube really only reveals the absurd and out of proportion health care costs. It is the system we have that demands a "professional level of care" instead of sending her home with her family to care for and provide the feeding tube is the problem. We have artificially increased the costs of caring for her and those like her by demanding that she be placed in a high-cost environment, when a low cost environmnet coupled with a few hours of training (i.e. how to clean the feeding insert and how to change the feeding bag) would suffice to extend her life for years to come. We have abdicated our familial and social responsibilities to the government, and then cry when the government refuses to take on that burden in the manner we expect. To a degree, only a small degree, what has happened here is the fault of Americans at large. Not only regarding health care - we have abdicated our social, welfare, security and educational responsibilities to government as well, and we are getting our just desserts for so doing.
Theresa Marie Schindler, Martyr for the Gospel of Life, pray for us.
This decision also paves the way for infanticide, since infants can't feed themselves.
What the hell is 'artificial nutrition'???
Is it nutrasweet? Is it a plastic bag? Is it wallpaper paste?
WHAT THE HELL IS ARTIFICIAL NUTRITION??
Ping
=== Does your state allow this type of killing?
To my knowledge, all states do.
Surprise!
Now let's get that Living Will signed, pronto, 'cause the rest of the pieces already are in place.
This is only saying that they are giving permission, not ordering it to be done, nor ordering others (like family members) to not give food to the patient. There's a difference between the passive giving of permission and the active ordering of others to withhold food and water.
-PJ