Too late - this already happened.
As I said elsewhere, it’s a big tent, with a big flap. Don’t let it hit you on the ass, or over the head, in keeping with the metaphor, on your way out.
lekatt, thank you for your response. One of the primary issues of this case, in my mind, is when do you decide to let go? (Other issues are what are spousal rights versus the rights of parents, the State or the Feds; and what is the definition of “death.”) My reading of the case, and I’ve done way too much reading, is that Michael and Mary tried many, many things for three years to try to bring Terri back to a functioning ability. It finally became clear to Michael that Terri would never recover. I don’t know if that realization has ever come through to Terri’s parents. This part of the issue isn’t even about the last ten years, but instead it is about the first five years. You ask “Did Terri get a fair deal?” For Terri having a heart attack and not getting medical attention within two minutes – no she didn’t get a fair deal. This happens in life. On any given day you could find dozens, if not hundreds of other people that this happens to as well, in addition to the people starving to death in the Sudan, any child being molested, anyone dying in an accident, etc. They don’t get fair deals. But as for Terri getting post-accident treatment? Yes, she got a fair deal for three years. And in no way, shape or form did she get a “bum’s rush into death.” (It’s been fifteen years! How quick is a “bum’s rush?”)
But for the past ten years Terri’s parents have fought to keep her alive and continue treatment that all reasonable doctors who have actually examined Terri conclude is fruitless. They have gone on record saying that even if Terri would have signed a living will directing that she never be kept in a vegetative state, they would have ignored it and continued treatment. How long would they wish to continue treatment? Ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred years? I guess as long as it takes. In regards to having loving but very deluded parents and getting her body shoved into the public spotlight, yes Terri has not received a “fair deal.”
I don’t applaud Michael for forming a relationship with another woman and having two children, but I can understand it. This happened well after Terri’s parents had taken her legal-system hostage. The Schindler’s tried to force him into a situation of choosing between divorcing Terri and giving up what he believed to be his obligation to Terri, and moving on with his life. He decided not to choose either option they provided him with. His actions before the heart attack (you don’t enter into fertility treatment with someone you don’t love) and for the three to five years following the heat attack (continually by her bedside, taking her around for treatment, schooling in the medical care field) clearly shows that he loved her. But how long should someone be expected to remain faithful to what is effectively a breathing corpse?
You also mention that the “court rulings were a farce.” Which of the twenty-plus rulings are you referring to? They are all consistent. Just because a court ruling goes against what you perceive does not make it a farce.
Yes I agree that starving a person to death is very cruel and I truly wish that our government would allow the less painful and much more honorable circumstance of physician-assisted suicide. Unfortunately, in hundreds of occurrences across the country daily, it is the only option that our government has allowed.
Upon preview I see you have a few more comments I would like to address. You state that Michael is “a husband that wants to get rid of his wife so he can “marry” his new wife.” As I indicated above, I see a husband who has determined that his wife (Terri) can never get better, has tried to let what should happen to her happen (i.e. death and final resting) and wishe sto move on with his own life. But his wife is being held hostage by her parents and the legal system. You mention there is only heresay evidence that she wanted to die. OK, but there is NO evidence that she wanted this outcome. What would a reasonable person want? I would not and do not wish this situation on anyone, but I must ask you this. If you were in Terri’s condition, five years or fifteen years in a PVS with no medical hope of being brought back to a normal life, how long would you want well-meaning relatives to keep you around? As for myself and friends and relatives I’ve talked with, there is universal agreement that once reasonable doctors agree that there is no hope for improvement, the body should be allowed to follow the rational brain into death.
You also took some shots against science. It is only because of science that she is in this state! Science has allowed medical advances to prolong, properly, the lives of millions of people, and I consider that a good thing. Unfortunately Terri is on the edge of what science can and cannot do. Perhaps the real answer is to go back to a time in which science isn’t a part and allow “nature” or God to take control. I would not like that because I would have died decades ago. I would also like to take this country back - but from people (and legislators) whose perverted sense of religion goes against common sense and what I believe is right, decent and agrees with my own religious beliefs.
Expected from someone whose name is Barbarian.
Thanks for your sincere letter, I feel it was serious and wanted to help. However, I can not reconcile all the opposing sides choosing death. You know she never had an MRI or a CAT scan. Why not? Why has it become so important after all these years to kill her now. She will starve to death soon, probably on Easter Sunday. We will see how the body is handled then, will there be a autopsy and a report of the condition of her brain and/or what caused her “heart attack.” Or will her body be hustled to the incinerator as soon as possible so no one can test anything. That will determine how honest they are.
One of the cuts from her CT scan is widely available on the Internet. It has been discussed in numerous threads. It has also been reported that an MRI is impossible because of the thalamic implants she had many years ago, not to mention that there really isn’t anything that you’d see on MRI that changes her clinical outlook.
Seriously, it might be worthwhile to read up on this case before you go arguing about it.
You didn’t read the article you linked to, I take it?
Because she said so.
That’s exactly how some Republicans are going to try to spin it, yes. But they’ve failing. How liberal and scientist-run is this country right now? I don’t understand how this elevates some people’s rights above others either. Sounds to me like this is a is a wakeup call about how far removed from the mainstream the Religious Right actually is. They and you may think the average American is disgusted by activist judges trying to kill Terri, but it sounds like most of the people have a better idea of what’s really happening.
But not only the will of the people. And the will of the people seems to be that she should be allowed to die.
And conversely, the body cannot feel pain with the presence of the spirit ( if there is such a thing as a spirit ). Medical folks perform tests to determine the level of response, and one of them is a pain stimuli test. Someone can be seriously injured but not dead, and have no pain response.
The concept of a spirit is what G.D. is for. The debate over whether or not a spirit is still within what is left of that poor woman’s body can never be resolved or proven.
In fact, that lack of proof raises a much much larger issue/debate. We can only respond to what we can see and measure. It is in the nature of humans. However, that is a separate debate, and an OP which I shall start forthwith and not hijack this thread with it.
Cartooniverse