If Ted didn't visit FL, he would not be dehydrating and starving in a hospice right now.
Before all heated up last year, we were still seriously considering getting a property in the area between Ocala and Clearwater. We had contacted real estate agents, and I visited properties on my way to Pinellas Park. I should add I lived near Sebring when a kid, and had a house in Homestead before Hurricane Andrew, so had ties and affection for Florida. Guess what changed!!! It was not the place I remembered.
Very much has changed in Florida when you have been away for a while and then return. Sometimes I am afraid for my family still there, but then I think pretty much any state will have these problems. I think it may well depend on your family. If they don't believe in the sanctity of life, then you're doomed. I know there will be times when even that isn't enough. It wasn't enough for Terri, and it wasn't enough for Jimmy Chambers, either. And there are many more we never hear about.
The idea of futile care has been ingrained in so many of these doctors. Heck, that's what Dr. Cranford has been teaching to his student doctors at Univ. of Minnesota all these years. Ethics? I used to think that "moral" was a synonym for "ethics". Perhaps at one time it was, but it isn't that way anymore.
One of the organizations that I contacted about Ted was Priestsforlife.org
I received a reply from someone who thanked me and told me she would inform Father Pavone.
Sadly, it is too late for Ted, but we should remember to contact Priests for Life the next time someone needs our help, as Father Pavone did all he could to help Terri.
What we really need, of course, is legislation.
Prayers for Ted. I feel so sad, as many of us do.