Terri Schiavo Before dehydration
I know I'll get flamed for saying this, but Terri Schiavo was not "killed" or "murdered" or "euthanized". Terri Schiavo was not really living - she was being kept alive by a feeding tube because she could not eat the normal way. I watched my father die 22 years ago after being taken off a respirator that helped him breathe because he could not do so on his own following a massive stroke. He was not "living", in the usual term, but still had to "die". We did not murder him, we did not "euthanize" him, we let Nature or God take her/his course. In my opinion, Terri Schiavo was helped - which should have been done years ago - the same way we helped my father not suffer further. I think Americans who believe Terri Schiavo was done an injustice are wrong. It's hard to understand until you've been there and done it. Just like combat service.
Well -- Terri was not your Dad, and HER own Mom and Dad wanted her to live, and she wanted to live to. Three times she hung on longer than mortals wishing to die would have been able to.
What if you thought your Dad was still alive, and wanted to live -- yet a roomful of armed men kept you from giving him even one sliver of an ice cube, one sip of water, one spoon of soup. Don't you think that is heartless, no matter how much you wish to be the hero?
Terri was not on a respirator. She only needed food and water to live, just like you and I need food and water to live. Terri was not PVS, she was brain damaged. And according to nurses and her family she could communicate. Maybe not as well as you or I but they claimed they could still understand what she meant and or what she wanted.
To refuse her food and water was nothing less then murder by judicial decree. And now are all at risk of losing the same rights that they trampled in committing her murder. We are all no longer safe under our own constitution. They took away her 14th amendment rights. And in doing that we all lost Our rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit to Happiness. And we are now all at risk.
If she was dead already, then why was it necessary to kill her? She wasn't dead. Her husband and the judge made a decision that she'd be better off dead.
And that may or may not be right, but one thing is clear--the law did not authorize what they did. The courts simply did what they always do, i.e. they applied their own "law."
So shall we "help" all the chldren with downs syndrome and cerebral palsy, cause surely they're not really "living"?
Terri Schiavo was not on a respirator.
Don't know what you can call it when food and water are taken away and no effort to feed them by mouth is allowed? Looks like murder - same as a parent locking a child in a closet and not feeding them. Terri was not dying - she was judged not worthy of living.
And, just who designated some with the power to decide when others are too worthless to live?
This woman had constitutional rights - same as you and me - and they were denied to her.
The paramount question that is gnawing in anyone of good conscience is- do we in America, deprive someone of food and water as a matter of law as a means to their death?
Therein, lies the assault not only on our Constitution, but our humanity.
Many in America believe its wrong to put a mass murderer to death by means of lethal injection But here, the law says we can take a disabled woman, and torture her to death over a 12 day period.
I still can't believe it happened in America.
Had your father managed to start breathing on his own, would you have stuffed a pillow over his face to ensure that he died? There is a major difference between undertaking a course of action which is likely to result in a person dying from an underying condition, versus taking a course of action that would be 100% guaranteed to kill anyone no matter what their health. Ordering that all means of feeding and hydration, including oral, be denied is the latter type of action.
Funny thing. TS was able to swallow originally, but the ability was lost over the years she spent in the kind care of her medical/legal professionals.
I believe you are wrong.
Who declared you God? How all-powerful of you, to get to choose whose life is worth living, and whose isn't.
A respirator can be an extraordinary measure after there is absolutely no brain activity. Terri had brain activity consistent with brain damage but not PVS. Food and water is not an extraordinary measure to sustain her life.
WRONG!!!!!Terri could eat JELLO, MALTS, etc.....Terri was not ALLOWED by her killer husband to be fed PERIOD. .......and grossly on her deathbed she wasn't even allowed cold water on her lips!!! DON'T GIVE ME THIS she was not MURDERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did a judge warn you not to put a drop of water on his lips? Did he warn you if you put a bite of food in his mouth and he chocked you would be charged with murder?
What do you know? It's entirely possible that her brain was damaged in such a way that she was living in a state of bliss.
Equally, she may have been in torment.
You don't know.
The situation you describe with your father is a straw man: it has nothing to do with what happened in the Shiavo case.
As far as my morals are concerned, she was murdered by a probate judge and a man who was once married to her.
I've "been there and done it" too, more than once, thank you. I still believe Terri was murdered. I wouldn't compare her case to the ones that occurred in my own family, or anyone else's.
Absolutely astounding. I pity the blindness of this nation and this people. My God. They really cannot see...they can't see. My God.
Well, I have twice. My stepfather was in a nursing home for 12 years with a feeding tube. Not once did we ever think of pulling it.
My mother had just passed away and my husband's sister (57) went into the hospital and never came out. She was on a respirator and they had to decide "to pull it."
Still, I fought and cried for Terri. She was disabled, not dead.
There is a big difference between a feeding tube and a respirator AND someone who is disabled and someone who has machines doing everything for them.