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Thanks for the ping.

My mother and I are bitterly divided over this. :-( I know her heart is in the right place. She sees this as a "right to die" hill to die on.

I see it as right-to-kill. I cannot get her to see the evidence. For her it is a one-way issue and anything that contradicts her position must be false.

I can see both sides. If Terri had a living will that said what Michael claims she said, I would fight for her right to die just as hard as I've fought for her to receive food and drink. I just do not believe a Catholic girl would want it, and I think Michael shouldn't be her guardian because he's moved on to make another family, and has misused money he swore to a jury he'd spend on her rehab. There are assistive communicative technologies that have never been tried--because he has refused to allow her to even TRY them. And I think everybody has a human right to clean teeth!

My mom is afraid that my support for Terri's parents means that I will ignore her own living will, which explicitly says she doesn't want food or water if she's in a similar state.

Well, I wouldn't let my mom go without pain meds or cleaned teeth. No way, no how, and I'd do everything in my power to let her communicate any change of mind.

This is very painful, and we are just not discussing it anymore.

It is wrong to have a right to die.

Any death that requires the assistancee of another person or the intentional neglect of that person is not a right but a sanctioned action that has but one purpose and that is to rid society of the burden of caring for the afflicted person either emotionally or physically.

There is no dignity involved, nor is there any compelling state interest.

The problem we face is that we have already bought a bill of goods.

Let's call it what it is: euthansia.

I agree with your points. Just reassure your Mom about her future. Teeth - my mother is in a nursing home and has been for several years. She receives good care with caring people but one day for some reason I checked to see something in her mouth. I raised her lip and was absolutely shocked at the condition of her teeth. Man, I caused a ruckus.

Here I had fed her, taken care of all her medical/physical needs, taken her to doctors, worked with the home on her medications, problems and all of it, and I had never seen that her teeth were rotting. Neither had they although they should have been brushing them.

She had to have all pulled. The administrators apologized but never really took the situation as absolutely shameful as I felt it was.

You have to watch everything when people are in facilities like these. I so often worry about those who have no family to speak up for them or check on their care - they definitely will not last long.