This passage does a good job defining what is life support but, as I understand it, Fla Law has been expanded to include things like feeding tubes into the category of 'Life support' measures.
I haven't seen this analogy brought up on FR yet but consider the case where, instead of being unable to ingest food through her mouth (And there IS doubt about whether this was so), Terri had sustained an injury such that she was unable to breath through nasal or oral openings and thus required a tube to get air into what are otherwise normally functioning lungs. Would the same actions have been taken - i.e. Remove the air tube and immediately suffocate her? Would this have been acceptable? Very probably not, yet it is really no different than what was done in denying food and water to her.
And if removal of an air tube is possible, what do we do about people who need oxygen enhancement via artificial means and who happen to be unfortunate enough to be unable to communicate due to brain damage? Do we remove these 'Devices' and allow them to wheeze their way into the afterlife?
Just some thoughts I've been having about what happened to an innocent, helpless woman on the whim of her husband who was aided and abetted by terrible law, a bad judge and an insane attorney.
where is your moral presidant now?
perhap's he could have spoke to his brother,looked like they were pretty tight...hmmmm....
It depends.
Before the patient became brain damaged, did they express any desire, verbal or written, about what they would have wanted? If so, don't we have an obligation to carry out that wish, given their condition as you described it?
If they did not express a desire, either written or oral, then we are confronted with a euthanasia decision. Which is a completely different topic for another day and another thread.
You forgot to add his new "squeeze". I refuse to believe the new little woman wasn't sitting beside him at Terri's bedside from time to time or laying with him in bed at night and asking "Michael, when are we going to get married. When are our kids going to be legitimate?" That Jodi Centzone escaped almost all media attention in this is amazing IMO considering the influence all "spouses" have on one another in such weighty matters. The two of them have been together for at least 10 years for Pete's sake.
" and it is known that if it is removed the person will die almost immediately."
That wasn't the case when Karen Quinlan was removed from life support. She lived for many years after removal, proving the doctors either didn't know squat or were gauging whoever was paying the bill.