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NY Times: Starvation Death Not Painful
NewsMax.com ^ | March 20, 2005 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

Posted on 03/20/2005 5:15:38 AM PST by MisterRepublican

The newspaper that was most outraged over photos of Iraqi terrorist suspects being mistreated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison said Sunday that the two week-long starvation-execution of Terri Schiavo will cause her "little discomfort."

"From the data that is available, it is not a horrific thing at all," Dr. Linda Emanuel, the founder of the Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care Project at Northwestern University tells the New York Times.

"In fact, declining food and water is a common way that terminally ill patients end their lives, because it is less painful than violent suicide and requires no help from doctors," the paper maintains.

The Times also cites Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and palliative care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who insists that starvation victims "generally slip into a peaceful coma."

"It's very quiet, it's very dignified - it's very gentle," he adds.

Other experts not quoted by the Times, however, disagree.

Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, says that in fact, for a conscious patient like Terri Schiavo, death by starvation will be fraught with agony.

In his book "Forced Exit, The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder," Smith reports:

"A conscious person would feel it [dehydration] just as you and 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 mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining."

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: euthanasia
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To: MisterRepublican
I'm sure the New York Times liberals won't mind if we try it on Death Row inmates. After all the Newspaper Of Record is on record as saying its not a painful and inhumane method of execution. For once I agree with them! Just think how fast it would empty Death Row cells all over the nation.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
61 posted on 03/20/2005 5:56:29 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: cyborg

Our military does an absolutely insanely great job at making sure water and other types of rehydration are available at all times to everyone.

They are encouraging people to get camelbacks which can carry much more water than your average canteens....


62 posted on 03/20/2005 5:57:37 AM PST by MikefromOhio (Silly Hippies, Bush Won!!!!)
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To: MisterRepublican
Ah! So that's why it's so easy to stick to a diet!
63 posted on 03/20/2005 5:58:23 AM PST by Grut
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To: MisterRepublican

It reminds me of the movie I saw once depicting a death row inmate being asked by the warden whether he wanted electrocution or lethal injection. He opted for lethal injection.

"Good choice," said the warden. "It's much less painful."

The inmate replied, "You ever tried it?"


64 posted on 03/20/2005 6:07:59 AM PST by pleasedontzotme
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To: Living Free in NH
declining food and water is a common way that terminally ill patients end their lives

And Terri Schiavo is not terminally ill.

65 posted on 03/20/2005 6:09:30 AM PST by sockmonkey
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To: LoudRepublicangirl
We have been told that male children do not feel pain when they are being circumcised

Then how come they cry???

66 posted on 03/20/2005 6:10:31 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: MisterRepublican

If it's so peaceful then why do we have laws that would throw you in jail if you did it to a dog?


67 posted on 03/20/2005 6:13:43 AM PST by joebuck
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To: afraidfortherepublic

We've been told children don't feel pain for just about everything we wanted to do that caused pain, including having teeth pulled. Yes they do.


68 posted on 03/20/2005 6:15:01 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: MisterRepublican
Apart from any moral or religious convictions, there is another reason to be wary of anyone claiming to do good by killing another. Elias Canetti in Crowds and Power wrote of this in his chapter entitled "Survivor As a Passion." He pointed out there is a natural human inclination to glory in surviving when others are dying or dead. Canetti makes a subtle, sophisticated argument that this dynamic also plays a part in a despot's behavior in attempting to or actually governing.

Canetti is not easy to understand and I can't do justice to his works. I might add, though, that Crowds and Power was written in 1960 and received the Nobel Prize in 1981. The real claim IMHO to this book was Canetti's discussion of crowds, religion, governments and rule. Still worth reading after all these years.

69 posted on 03/20/2005 6:16:13 AM PST by shrinkermd
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To: MisterRepublican
So easy? Try fasting for a while and experience what it feels like when your body starts getting its protein from your muscles. What wing-nuts!
70 posted on 03/20/2005 6:23:08 AM PST by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668)
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To: MisterRepublican

LOL! This is hilarious. If being starved to death is so great, why aren't more people doing it to themselves to commit suicide?


71 posted on 03/20/2005 6:24:46 AM PST by Saundra Duffy (Feed Terri - Impeach Greer!!!)
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To: Jay Howard Smith

I have seen pictures of the concentration camps when I was just a kid. Didn't look a day at the races to me. One of the idiots at the Daily Herald wrote Saturday that the ''feeding tube was the only thing keeping her from dying.''
I left a message on his voice mail saying that food was the only thing keeping me from dying too. Terri takes her from small hole in her tummy, I take it by mouth.
I was not polite and I don't care, the only reason I take the newspaper is they have a good handicapper writing for them.


72 posted on 03/20/2005 6:28:28 AM PST by LauraJean (sometimes I win sometimes I donate to the equine benevolent society)
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To: MisterRepublican

Screw the Ethiopians! Thanks NY Times!


73 posted on 03/20/2005 6:28:37 AM PST by Bommer
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To: American Vet Repairman

Amen....And I am surprised this route is not already underway. This entire case blows my mind, and the only conclusion I have come to....is it possible there is something in it for the judge?....Just a thought. JK


74 posted on 03/20/2005 6:29:56 AM PST by Just Kimberly (Always proud, Always American, Always Trust in God...HOOAH!!)
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To: Just Kimberly

I suggest we starve the NYT editors. You can bet things would turn around they were the targets of this action.


75 posted on 03/20/2005 6:30:20 AM PST by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668)
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To: MisterRepublican
"It's very quiet, it's very dignified - it's very gentle," he adds."

Maybe he (Dr. Sean Morrison) should try it and show us.

76 posted on 03/20/2005 6:32:46 AM PST by nightdriver
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To: Tax Government
Why isn't NYT packaged as in the same format as toilet paper? Subscribing might be cheaper than buying Charmin.

But not nearly so squeezably soft and comfy.

77 posted on 03/20/2005 6:33:26 AM PST by Maceman (Too nuanced for a bumper sticker)
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To: mewzilla

The damned New York Times turns on a dime. What about all their stories and editorials on African children starving to death?


78 posted on 03/20/2005 6:34:40 AM PST by KenmcG414
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To: hflynn
Dwindling circulation is a common way that terminally ill newspapers end their lives...

Laughing

It really isn't all that funny though. I used to occasionally buy a copy of the NYT. I will no longer do that.

79 posted on 03/20/2005 6:34:41 AM PST by The Other Harry
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To: mict42

They have been this way for decades. Know them by their acts.


80 posted on 03/20/2005 6:35:37 AM PST by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668)
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