Nobody "wants" the poor lady to die....

In all our lives, there comes a time when we must make very difficult decisions. We don't ask the government to make the decisions for us. It is never easy. There are and will continue to be thousands of Terri Schiavos. People ask if it would be more humane to simply give her a triple dose of morphine and let her slip away rather quickly than deprive her of water and nutrition until she slips away slowly? Does it reflect upon us as a people? We all must live with our decisions. It is the means which is causing so many people grief. Why?

She has been dead for 15 years. She "exists" as a human tissue bank.

along with everyone else invloved with this farce - i am simply sick of it.

with their lives. Though they might be scarred by this for a long time. They should have received councling on this a long time ago.

The only things that could possibly motivate someone to want to keep her "alive" are either:

1. some kind of selfish personal neediness (e.g., "I want her around").

OR

2. ignorance of the true nature of the situation.

OR

3. Some combination of the above, such as being in denial about her true condition because of the inability to accept that she has died.

Until you have lost someone you love (for me it was my parents) to a prolonged illness with protracted suffering, you will not be able to understand how you could simultaneously love someone and also genuinely "want" them to die.

A visit to a hospice, or an elder care home that does hospice care, might suffice to bestow this understanding on someone who does not "get it".

The dad is convinced that he is having conversations with her every time he talks to her. It's really quite sad because she's, well, really not at all responsive, nor aware.

I really, really feel for the Schindlers in this case, even though I don't think she should be kept alive. When they talk, you can see that they really do believe that she's talking to them, and I totally understand that. If someone from my family was in that kind of state, I would want to believe that they were still in there, and that they still knew me, and that they would still talk to me. I would definatly have a hard time letting go, and I totally understand their (misguided, but I think virtuously so) efforts to keep her alive. I think that really makes it all the more disgusting that Republicans would take advantage of them like this.

When you first hear it's a feeding tube, I think the initial reaction is that it is barbaric. But when you learn about the situation, her condition and about feeding tubes, rational people understand that it's really no different than removing someone from a respirator.

And judging by the polls, the vast majority of people who know something about this case agree that the tube should have been removed. Considering a lot of these same people are fooled on anything that can't be summed up in a catch phrase, I think that means that this situation is pretty blatantly clear.

Either that or America is starting to wise up... only time will tell.

Anyone who has witnessed the natural progress of death, even in a pet, can attest that refusing food and water is the first thing a creature does as it begins to die. The body starts to shut down thereafter and slips away. Many, many DU'ers have posted in GD about their experiences with loved ones who died, without artificial interference, in this way. And it was peaceful and non-traumatic, especially compared to their previous suffering.

It is only because medicine has so removed us from the natural experience of human death that this seems somehow frightening or cruel. Quite honestly, I would prefer a loved one to die this way than to inject them with some deadly drug and watch them die, which seems rather violent, in a way, to me. Or like putting a pet down. But that is a very subjective thing, and in an ideal world, we would all have the choice of how we want to leave, instead of begging to be allowed to simply die with some dignity.

Very thoughtful.

The only solace, in this sad affair, is that Terri isn't physically or emotionally suffering. But she is gone and it's time to let her body follow. Unfortunately, this same madness could easily have befallen someone who was truly suffering and unable to communicate and demand that their right to die be honored. That fear is what is outweighing any misgivings people have and why they are siding against putting that tube back in.

peace...