When they were killing Terri, they loved to talk about how she was feeling “euphoric,” which was somewhat ironic when you consider that their argument in court was that Terri was “brain dead” and couldn’t “feel” anything.
That is the dichotomy of the insane. If someone is brain dead then why the rush to free them from the situation? If one can not feel anything then how can they be suffering? It is really not about the individual with the feeding tube it is about the irrational emotions and often selfish desires of those who remain. I personally think that we should err on the side of the individual who can not speak for themselves. Would we not feed a retarded individual who had no hands?
It says a lot about us and our culture of convenience. The sad thing though is the individuals who in both Terri’s case and this case with Lauren could easily discharge their responsibility over the individual in their care to someone who wishes to take care and provide for them. So it comes down to law that emboldens irrational and inhuman behavior.
Even with Terri they rushed to proclaim that she could not possibly improve and then tried to twist the results of her brain scan and autopsy to prove it. What they show is a brain that had deteriorated but not so unlike the brains of others as they age or special conditions as shown in the first link below. The one thing we do know is that we can not have confidence in the recommendations of doctors when they say a patient is in a PVS and will not recover. Increasing numbers of people are waking up and are recovering. A friend of mine did. The doctors told his mom he would never come out of the coma, he did, they said he’d never walk, he did. That is why I err on the side of life.
http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/2007/07/man-with-tiny-b.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1870279,00.html