Profound questions from the Schiavo case

. . .People of goodwill may disagree about Terri Schiavo's case. Yet as our society strays from its traditional belief in the essential dignity of every human life, we all must grapple with the implications of the notion that some lives are "not worth living."

Today, assisted suicide is lawful in Oregon. In the Netherlands, according to the New York Times, prosecutors no longer pursue cases against doctors who kill severely impaired babies after birth. The temptation to deal with the defective and incompetent by eliminating them is likely to grow as our society ages. Today, approximately 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. In coming decades, projections suggest that about 40 percent of us will spend roughly 10 years in an infirm, demented condition. The way we deal with this situation will say much about us as a society.

Currently, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is staging an exhibit . . . called "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race." It examines the idea of "lebensunwertes Leben" -- lives not worthy of life --which the Nazis used to justify their elimination of thousands deemed unfit to live: the retarded, the defective and the seriously ill.

Some German intellectuals championed this idea well before the Nazi era began. A 1920 book, for example, decried "the meticulous care shown to existences which are not just absolutely worthless" -- the disabled and deformed -- "but even of negative value." It called for applying the "healing remedy" of premature death, in order to "eliminat[e] those who were born unfit for life or who later became so."

Today, we must ensure that we ourselves are not tempted to start down this slippery slope --moved by free choice rather than totalitarian edict, and seduced by a shallow notion of "death with dignity."

**But then the truth is totally immaterial to you Terri supporters.**

Why the anger? Last night I saw Alan Combs treat a member of Shivio family with the absolute rudeness and a glee in his voice in his questioning. I see the same on this forum from the supporters of Schiavo tube being removed. I can see why the supporters of Terri would still be angry, they feel like someone was murdered in front of their eyes and they couldn't stop it but your side won so why still argue? As the old saying "Me thinks thou is protesting too much" rings true.

"you Terri supporters" Interesting that you say You Terri supporters? I thought that the side that supported the Husband was supporting Terri's wishes and wanted to end her suffering? Don't sound like you cared about Terri one way or another like the other poster who worried about the effect of government involvement in marriage you must have another agenda than Terri's welfare.

My problems with the case is as followed.

1. The Husband and his family is on one side yet her Parents, Siblings, Friends, and many Nurses wanted the tube left in. In other words do we believe that only one loved her (the Husband) while the Family, Friends, Nurses all wanted her to suffer in order to get back at the Husband because of a fight? Or do we believe that Family, Friends, Nurses all loved her more than the Husband did and the Husband motives has to be suspect?

2. If I had a loved one and I didn't want her to suffer then if I made the decision to end her life I wouldn't have her suffer for weeks, I would either move her to an assisted suicide state or simply placed a pillow over her head. To have her suffer for weeks don't vibe with a loving husband.

3. If I was so sure that she has PVS and wouldn't get better then what harm in letting the parents take over or at least prove to them that she couldn't improve. Let them take over the care for six months or a year, let them bring in their own medical experts. The Husband wasted more time than that in legal fights. Rather than invite review and settle questions about Terri the Judge and Husband wanted to kill her as quickly as possible which makes you think they have something to hide.

I wouldn't surprised if all the claims of the Husband and his supporters did turn out to be true but it would make more sense to find all this out before the plug was pulled.

How can you know what he knew would happen and all the other situations on which you expound? Are you a friend/family/colleague/associate of Michael Schiavo, George Felos or George Greer or ANY OTHER PERSON connected to either of them? If you are, say so and how credibly .. I shall believe you. Otherwise, it's so much speculation; however, your confidence may indicate an intimacy with some/all of the principals which you're not honestly revealing.

All I know is this: Terri Schiavo, (whose collapse in 1990 under unusual circumstances and questionable medical assistance; i.e. 70 mins. lying as she fell before 911 was called) .. a living disabled young woman, with no terminal disease -- breathing on her own, heart pumping on its own -- was legally allowed to be starved of nourishment and hydration for 13 days until her horrible death, a fate that isn't legally allowed to done to a dog or a death row inmate.

A PAINLESS DEATH?

Excerpt:

"Yes, it is true that when people are actively dying from terminal disease, they often refuse food and water. The disease makes the food and water repulsive to them. In such circumstances, it is medically inappropriate to force food and water into a person who is actively rejecting it. Indeed, doing so could cause suffering.

But this isn't what is happening to Terri. She isn't dying of cancer. Her body isn't shutting down as part of the natural dying process. Indeed, she is not dying at all--unless her food and water is taken away.

".........A conscious [cognitively disabled] person would feel it just as you or I would.

They will go into seizures.

Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack.

They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucus membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining.

They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst.

Imagine going one day without a glass of water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death.

" " ........... After seven to nine days [from commencing dehydration] they begin to lose all fluids in the body, a lot of fluids in the body.

And their blood pressure starts to go down.

When their blood pressure goes down, their heart rate goes up

Their respiration may increase and then . . . the blood is shunted to the central part of the body from the periphery of the body.

So, that usually two to three days prior to death, sometimes four days, the hands and the feet become extremely cold.

They become mottled.

That is you look at the hands and they have a bluish appearance.

And the mouth dries a great deal, and the eyes dry a great deal and other parts of the body become mottled.

And that is because the blood is now so low in the system it's shunted to the heart and other visceral organs and away from the periphery of the body . . ."

"MOST OF THE TIME, we never know for sure what a starved or dehydrated person experiences. But in at least one case--that of a young woman who had her tube feeding stopped for eight days and lived to tell the tale--we have direct evidence of the agony that forced dehydration may cause.

At age 33, Kate Adamson collapsed from a devastating and incapacitating stroke. She was utterly unresponsive and was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Because of a bowel obstruction she developed, her nourishment was stopped so that doctors could perform surgery.

Adamson eventually recovered sufficiently to author "Kate's Journey: Triumph Over Adversity," in which she tells the terrifying tale. Rather than being unconscious with no chance of recovery as her doctors believed, she was actually awake and aware but unable to move any part of her body voluntarily. (This is known as a "locked-in state.") When she appeared recently on "The O'Reilly Factor," host Bill O'Reilly asked Adamson about the dehydration experience:

O'REILLY: When they took the feeding tube out, what went through your mind?

ADAMSON: When the feeding tube was turned off for eight days, I thought I was going insane. I was screaming out in my mind, "Don't you know I need to eat?" And even up until that point, I had been having a bagful of Ensure as my nourishment that was going through the feeding tube. At that point, it sounded pretty good. I just wanted something. The fact that I had nothing, the hunger pains overrode every thought I had.

O'REILLY: So you were feeling pain when they removed your tube?

ADAMSON: Yes. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. To say that--especially when Michael [Schiavo] on national TV mentioned last week that it's a pretty painless thing to have the feeding tube removed--it is the exact opposite. It was sheer torture, Bill.

O'REILLY: It's just amazing.

ADAMSON: Sheer torture . . .

In preparation for this article, I contacted Adamson for more details about the torture she experienced while being dehydrated. She told me about having been operated upon (to remove the bowel obstruction) with inadequate anesthesia when doctors believed she was unconscious:

The agony of going without food was a constant pain that lasted not several hours like my operation did, but several days. You have to endure the physical pain and on top of that you have to endure the emotional pain. Your whole body cries out, "Feed me. I am alive and a person, don't let me die, for God's Sake! Somebody feed me."

A Painless Death

THE FACTS --"Terri Schiavo, (whose collapse in 1990 under unusual circumstances and questionable medical assistance; i.e. 70 mins. lying as she fell before 911 was called) .. a living disabled young woman, with no terminal disease -- breathing on her own, heart pumping on its own -- was legally allowed to be starved of nourishment and hydration for 13 days until her horrible death, a fate that isn't legally allowed to done to a dog or a death row inmate"

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The autopsy photo of Lisa McPherson, if you want to see the result of death by deprivation of nourishment and hydration - CAUTION: GRAPHIC AND NOT ALLOWED TO BE SHOWN HERE!

http://www.libertytothecaptives.net/lisa_mcpherson_dehydrated.jpg

WHEN THERE'S DOUBT, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF

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