SF,
Yes I have missed you. I have enjoyed reading your post concerning Terri Shiavo. I have also read some of the articles in the websites you have referred to.
Several people have expressed the view that they would not want to trade places with Terri, ... that life would not be worth living in that state. I don't know that I would want to trade places with her either, but on the other hand I don't know that I would have wanted to trade places with Chtistopher Reeve either.Different injuries yes, but his case was just as hopeless a few short years ago.
You might say that he didn' t live very long after his accident though. But in this short time that he had left he became a symbol to millions of people both those with disabilities and those without disabilities that there was hope, there is always hope in what tomorrow can bring.
I'm not talking about God intervening directly either. God has given humans a brain ... a great gift that he can use to the betterment of mankind.
Great advances are being made in medicine everyday. Future spinal cord injuries will be able to make use of and build upon the knowledge that was achieved in treating Mr. Reeve ... till someday his condition will be curable. After reading some of SF's post I wonder if Terri received the best care , diagnosis of her condition and treatments that all patients deserve as human beings. Remember the medical team that originally treated Terri, fumbled the ball ... maybe the second medical team that had to step up to the line and pick up the pieces after Terri's tragic collapse also fumbled the ball with a mis-diagnosis of the extent of her treatable or untreatable brain condition.
If you follow SF's website threads there were about 30 highly specialized brain neorologist with qualifications equal too and exceeding the (doctors's qualifications that came up with PVS as a diagnosis ), that wanted to examine Terri because they were not sure that there had been a correct diagnosis. Some of these doctors also felt that through proper therapy Terri's quality of life could be greatly enhanced. Why did the husband not allow a lot of medical testing after 1993, when he won his malpractice lawsuit? Not even an MRI?
All human beings are endowed with inalienable rights to life. Terri does not have the means to make her intentions known. We don't really know what she would have wanted. She didn't have a living will, no advance directives or durable power of attorney. The only thing the judge had to go on was the recollections of her husband and his relatives ... Terri's relatives (parents) had the opposite recollection.
How do we know that the husband has not confused his wishes with what her wishes would have been? I find it strange that for several years, Michael and his inlaw's both wanted Terri kept alive. When Michael files a medical malpractice lawsuit in 1992, he wants the money to be used to treat his wife. After winning the lawsuit ... his recollection of his wife's wishes came to him! He also lives with another woman now and has had children with her ... could this cloud his recollection? The money from the lawsuit is basically gone, he was offered one million dollars by one individual and 10 million by another to just walk away so it cann't be about the money right? How about book rights, tv & movie rights, insurance policies. Also if the conservative pro-right, pro-lifers offered him money to walk away, what makes you so sure that the pro-choicers , euthanasia mind crowd haven't also offered an equal amount if it weren't broadcast to the public.
Terri is a symbol in the battle over life and death issues that confront us. Some people believe that life evolved by pure chance in a random universe. They don't think that there is a purpose for living here on Earth except to eat, sleep and have fun because when you die that's it.
There are other people however that believe that there is a God that created us and has a purpose for us all in every circumstance. They believe that all human life is sacred and should be defended. Remeber Terri is not dead ... she is a living, breathing human being. Some call her a vegetable but no one really knows for sure what is going on inside this woman's head only God knows.
Oh yes, this case shows the value of living wills but I wonder if we haven't also opened a can of worms and started on the slippery slope that Jenda mentioned? Who is to say what quality of life should be saved? as our resources become more scarce maybe we won't need SS, I'd hate to think that when I'm no longer contributing to the work force that I'm of no value and have no useful purpose to continue living and draining these scarce resources off. I would hate to be told that children or adults below a certain IQ level would not be able to experience a meaningful quality of life and therefore shouldn't be allowed to live and be a burden on society.
On the 8th day that food & water had been denied Terri, Michael's lawyer talked to the media and said that Terri looked the most beautiful and at peace that he had ever seen her! Yeah, right I'm sure he never lies. I would like to figuritively withhold food and water from this lawyer and ( judge Greer who three times did an unbiased fact finding in this case), and see if they looked the most beautiful and at peace that I had ever seen them! What an inhumane way to die! Of course the lawyer was trying to say that in Terri's case there was no awareness, no one home in her body to feel or know what was happening to her but only God knows this. So why then the rush to have her die?
This very judge that gave her not once but three times this barbaric death sentence would have his ruling over turned and quite possibly loose his judgeship if he would have sentenced the most vicious, mass murder, rapist and hideous criminal to ever walk the face of the earth to death by starvation. What crime did Terri commit? The president can and does pardon criminals but in Terri's case, since she is not a criminal ... it would be a flagrant violation of federalism and the separation of powers to interfere.
