Terri Schiavo

[Elen]

This issue is discussing almost on each political board.

So what do you think folks. Should she die or should she stay alive in vegatable condition? Who has a rith to make decision? What would you do at a place of her husband and at a place of her parents? Is starving to death helpless woman is more human way to kill her than a death injection?

So what do you think?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/102403terri.html

[AkMike]

I know if I were in her position and had any say about it I would not want to just exist as a vegetable. I can support her husband for his support of his wifes wishes.

I can also understand her parents wishes. It's not a natural scene for a parent to out live the children. The filial love of a parent knows no bounds and they are desperate for her to live, to grasp at any chance that she might regain her mind and return to them.

[Bruno]

So what do you think folks. Should she die or should she stay alive in vegatable condition? Who has a rith to make decision? What would you do at a place of her husband and at a place of her parents? Is starving to death helpless woman is more human way to kill her than a death injection?

I think that the real problem is the method used for kill her... stay someone starving, without food is not a human method...

Here, in Belgium, we have some law who authorize a "end in life in dignity"... it mean that when the medical have not issue, a fast and without pain dead is possible...

Usual, it is used when the dead is already near and when the pain is too big...

Now, in the case in these woman, i cannot give a meaning... she need only help for food... for the rest, she don't need machine... And about be a vegetable, we don't have really good information...

In any case, i think that know the dead in dignity is a individual right but law need to be clear... some ethics commission need to study the subject and adapt the law in US... and so law are no easy to make and need time...

Know the dead because you have now more food and drink is really not something that i can imagine in modern country... a lethal injection was a better solution... and in this case, if the parents wish keep the woman alive, it is easy, give the tutor right to the parents and they pay for the medical care... how a husband alone can make the decision for stop a life... and maybe like by us, a commite with all family, with several doctor can make the final decision... and it is need a absolute majority ( 2 doctor on the 3, and 2/3 of family )... and i repeat, only in case where the dead was certain in short term and for spare the pain...

Yes, US citizen, it is too late for Terri... but maybe it is time for begin discuss for make some law who control this...

 

 

[AkMike]

Bruno, in this case she has about 20% of her brain still funtioning. Just enough to breath and to keep her heart pumping. For all realistic purposes shes a vegetable

[Elen]

actually it's proven fact that even vegetables "cry" about pain when you cut them:?

[Bruno]

Bruno, in this case she has about 20% of her brain still funtioning. Just enough to breath and to keep her heart pumping. For all realistic purposes shes a vegetable

20% is already something... until several people use only 10% of their brain...

Our definition of "vegetable", it is a electro encephalogramme nul... and for these who remember his curse of biology, the heart is not command by the brain... he have his own nerveous system... and breath is a reflex command by the hypotalamus ( reflex ), the primitive brain...

In my case, it is not with the dead of these woman i have problem but with the method used...

And it is not very far of the limit... what after ? Dead all mental handicap people ? Hitler have make the same, all people who was not perfect in his view have lead to the dead...

 

 

[BC]

It's a real screwy world we live in today..

We already decide a lot to prohibit a disabled infant from living at the last possible moment before birth even accepting that pain is caused.  No real difference in my book..  

I believe whoever is capable of living without extrordinary long term measures should be allowed to do so unless they can express other wishes.  That's nature working at it's best.

Setting legal precidents is quite dangerous.. In the long term seems it will be the insurance companies that decide who is 'supportable' or not, or the families without insurance or where further coverage is denied will have to make a purely financial decision.

I just pray that I or my family never has to make such decisions. Anyone facing this has my sympathy however they choose to act.

[Bruno]

actually it's proven fact that even vegetables "cry" about pain when you cut them:?

Yes Elen, vegetable are living too... some difference with us but not so far... when you cut a plan, she produce a vegetal stress hormone who have several effect...

We cut the top of some plant for have more flower ( by the cut, the plant "think" that she will die and try make a lot of "baby", we cut some some young branch and plant these branch in the ground ( after some time, because of grow and stress hormone, the branch make new root ), ...

The only problem with human, it is that we have not the regenerative function that a lot of plant and some animals have...

Maybe we are not able to mesure some reaction of Terri but who is able to say that she don't suffert from these very long agony... we have go on the moon, we speak about Mars... but we don't know fully how work our own body, and almost nothing about our brain... we are these people who make a life or dead decision for other... Stop take the place of God...

In this case, the woman need only water and food, the family have wish take care of her... allow it... this is very different of the case of somebody with a deadly illness at the last moment of life who choose itself to stop his own life ( with help and assistence of doctor ) because there is no way back and only some week of pain before the death...

 

[AkMike]

Bruno, Maybe I worded it wrong. She has 20% brain function, so 20% of the 10% we use.

I've seen first hand this type of death, my Grandmother slipped into a coma and died this way. Iwas there for the last 3 weeks helping to care for her. I sincerely don't think that there is any pain or suffering.

The media is once again blowing everything out of proportion, IMHO.

[Bruno]

http://www.chninternational.com/from_coma_to_motherhood.htm


but technically, the doctors can't tell you when. . . . someone will come out of a coma


http://www.all.org/issues/ie04.htm

Withholding or withdrawing food and water leads only to death. Death by starvation and dehydration is a very undignified and inhumane death. It demeans the patient. The patient's mouth dries out and becomes coated with thick material. Lips become parched and cracked. The tongue swells and might crack. The eyes sink back into their orbits. The lining of the nose may crack and bleed. The skin becomes loose, dry and scaly. The urine concentrates, then decreases until there is no urine. The stomach lining dries, causing dry heaves. The respiratory tract dries out, giving rise to thick secretions which could plug the lungs and cause death. Eventually, major organs fail, including the lungs, heart and brain.

http://www.all.org/issues/eol07.htm

A non-comprehensive compendium of cases of patients who have awakened and/or improved following a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, irreversible coma or death

[AkMike]

I'll grant you that it isn't a pretty way to go. It's hardest on those left behindas they watch. But I dobelieve based on my observations that the "patient" isn't aware of it.

I do wish that they would allow a quiker more humaine way to go. I believe that only the state of Oregon allows the family and doctors to decide when the time has come.

[Elen]

It's over.:? She has passed today. Husband may  sigh with relax:X

[wxman]

May she rest in peace. It was not easy for her family. It became a media circus. I still do not understand why her husband had any say in the matter. he has been living another life with a woman and has 2 children with that other woman. If he truly loved his wife, he would not have been fooling around having babies with another woman while she laid in a hospital bed. Amazing how we won a $1 million dollar lawsuit against doctors. Some of the money went to pay for her costs, the other for lawyers. Now that thr money is gone, he wanted her dead.

[Bruno]

It's over.:? She has passed today. Husband may sigh with relax:X

Wrong Elena, it is only the beginning... now, people and some senator go make some work for change the law... now it is only finish for the news but not for the basic work...

 

[ConnerVT]

Wrong Elena, it is only the beginning...

I suspect her parents will be suing Terri's husband in civil court for homicide.  I's a shame Johnie Cochran can't defend him...