# Let the poor woman die already! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 17, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029 "2005-03-17T19:11:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 41
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/801 "2005-03-27T01:04:10Z")
I got the lot done today - Living Will, Power of Attorney and form to send to the DMV to confirm my organ donor status. A thank you to Terry Schiavo’s parents, Jeb Bush, Bill Frist and the other members of Congress who decided to intervene, and everyone else who reminded me of the need to get off my butt and do this. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/802 "2005-03-27T01:14:54Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Yes she is, by definition. They are withholding nutrition and hydration. She is starving to death right now, but will likely die of dehydration first. It’s sick and disgusting; we don’t treat dogs that way. [Terri is not – repeat, is NOT – suffering.](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-schaivodeath23mar23,0,3402521.story) ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/803 "2005-03-27T01:23:26Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > [Terri is not – repeat, is NOT – suffering.](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-schaivodeath23mar23,0,3402521.story) That’s nice and all. So can I tie up my dog in the backyard and refuse it food and water? After all, endorphins will be released, the dog will become euphoric, and eventually will slip into an apparently painless coma and death. So what’s wrong with that? The dog won’t feel anything. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/804 "2005-03-27T01:27:23Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > It’s sick and disgusting; we don’t treat dogs that way. The only “sick and disgusting” thing in this case is that her parents (and a whole hell of a lot of unrelated people) cannot accept the fact that Terri is never coming back. They have kept this body artificially fed and hydrated for all these years, for no purpose except making themselves feel better. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/805 "2005-03-27T01:34:50Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > So can I tie up my dog in the backyard and refuse it food and water? After all, endorphins will be released, the dog will become euphoric, and eventually will slip into an apparently painless coma and death. So what’s wrong with that? The dog won’t feel anything. :dubious: If your dog is already in a hospital and in a PVS and can’t feel pain, yes. Are you capable of providing an example without ignoring half the facts? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/806 "2005-03-27T02:02:59Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > If your dog is already in a hospital and in a PVS and can’t feel pain, yes. Are you capable of providing an example without ignoring half the facts? That would require a functioning cerebral cortex. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/807 "2005-03-27T02:05:58Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > That’s nice and all. > > So can I tie up my dog in the backyard and refuse it food and water? After all, endorphins will be released, the dog will become euphoric, and eventually will slip into an apparently painless coma and death. So what’s wrong with that? The dog won’t feel anything. :dubious: This is a digusting slap in the face of the thousands of families who make this difficult decision every year, some of them posters on the SDMB. You ‘true believers’ are so convinced that life must be grim to the bitter end, and deny the relief of death to those with no other humane recourse, are the reflection of your cruel, heartless punishing God. You deserve the painful suffering end you have woven for yourself, but don’t inflict it on the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/808 "2005-03-27T02:09:50Z")
I have a question-does anyone have a link to the audio of her “speaking?” I want to hear it for myself. ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/809 "2005-03-27T02:16:15Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > That would require a functioning cerebral cortex. Whatever. What would happen if you didn’t feed or water your precious horse for nine days? You’d likely go to jail. But not providing water! to Mrs. Schiavo is OK. Well, sorry if that disrupts the board karma, but I beg to disagree. Why doesn’t everyone just let that poor woman be, instead of actively trying to kill her? ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/810 "2005-03-27T02:18:50Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Whatever. What would happen if you didn’t feed or water your precious horse for nine days? You’d likely go to jail. But not providing water! to Mrs. Schiavo is OK. Because one can feel pain and the other can’t. Let’s make a more relevent analogy - nobody would take you to jail for refusing to water your potted plants. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/811 "2005-03-27T02:20:04Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Why doesn’t everyone just let that poor woman be, instead of actively trying to kill her? Because we respect individual liberty more than you. Terri Schiavo chose to reject medical intervention, and the courts are protecting that right. Leave it to the conservatives to deny this basic liberty to individuals in service of their barbaric political agenda. ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/812 "2005-03-27T02:20:39Z")
> [@Neurotik](#): > > Because one can feel pain and the other can’t. Let’s make a more relevent analogy - nobody would take you to jail for refusing to water your potted plants. I humbly submit that Terri’s life is worth more than a potted plant. ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/813 "2005-03-27T02:22:15Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Because we respect individual liberty more than you. Terri Schiavo chose to reject medical intervention, and the courts are protecting that right. Leave it to the conservatives to deny this basic liberty to individuals in service of their barbaric political agenda. Did she reject medical intervention, or food and water? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/814 "2005-03-27T02:23:24Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > I humbly submit that Terri’s life is worth more than a potted plant. Of course it is. But what we’re saying is that she can no more feel pain than a plant can feel pain. What’s left of her brain may register certain stimulus that can be called “pain”, but she’s not there to feel it. How many times does it have to be fucking said? Honestly, death is a part of life. It happens every day, to everyone. We’re ALL going to die sometime. Yes, life is good, life is important, but all of us will some day have to die. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/815 "2005-03-27T02:25:35Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Did she reject medical intervention, or food and water? A feeding tube IS medical intervention, dickweed. It has to be surgically connected to one’s stomach. It is NOT like having food and/or water. Terri hasn’t had had so much as a stale cracker since her collapse. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/816 "2005-03-27T02:30:25Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Did she reject medical intervention, or food and water? She specifically said she didn’t want any tubes. Read the court transcript. She used the word “tubes.” I know that none of the religious zealots on the Schindler side have the slightest interest in respecting Terri’s wishes but she has a right to refuse that tube and that’s all that’s going on here. And a feeding tube is a medical procedure. It’s life support just like a respirator. I know the pro-Schindler morons and Fox News are trying to draw some sort of distinction between a feeding tube and a respirator but there is none. Life support is life support. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/817 "2005-03-27T02:31:39Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > I humbly submit that Terri’s life is worth more than a potted plant. In what way? She has no consiousness. And if there is a God, God forbid that she does! Would you want to live in a shell, in a husk - for 15 years being unable to communicate, being unable to grasp what is going on about you, being a brain with nothing to gnaw on but itself? Would you want to live like that? Unable to appreciate the sound of your husband’s voice? Unable to appreciate the sound of your father’s or mother’s voice? Unable to appreciate the taste of Rocky Road ice cream? Unable to appreciate the colors of the balloons being waved incessantly in front your eyes that you do not have the ability to avoid? Living for 15 years with a tube surgically implanted in your stomach! Living for 15 years without being able to listen to music. Living for 15 years without being able to read. Living for 15 years without being able to say “Let me die!” She’s dead, man. Accept it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/818 "2005-03-27T02:35:16Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Whatever. What would happen if you didn’t feed or water your precious horse for nine days? You’d likely go to jail. But not providing water! to Mrs. Schiavo is OK. Not if the owners already contacted the vet and the vet could not do anything to MAKE THE HORSE EAT OR DRINK ON ITS OWN. > [@](#): > > Well, sorry if that disrupts the board karma, No problem! Hitting your ignorant points is like shooting fish in a barrel (call PETA I am now in their list!) > [@](#): > > but I beg to disagree. Why doesn’t everyone just let that poor woman be, Yeah, why not follow her wishes? > [@](#): > > instead of actively trying to kill her? Reading the decisions of the courts (even with conservative judges) in favor of both the husband and the wife, I have to conclude: 1-It is too late for that. 2-It was her decision. 3-Euthanasia for horses in a situation like this one is humane, I also think that it should be allowed for humans in extreme situation like this one. 4-You remain a certifiable idiot. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/819 "2005-03-27T03:09:45Z")
Great. We’ve gone from dogs to horses. :smack: Can we just skip to the end when you start comparing Terri to a Blue Whale? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029/820 "2005-03-27T03:19:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I have a question-does anyone have a link to the audio of her “speaking?” I want to hear it for myself. [Here ya go.](http://www.soulsurvivors.net/Public/20-MAR-05__EF05C38_0003AAE3-2D4F-123E-84811014AC14F856.mp3) Be prepared, it’s ghastly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-the-poor-woman-die-already/295029.md?page=42)