Jumping on the Schiavo Bandwagon

This whole Terri Schiavo debaucle has produced a mass amount of websites (such as saveterri.com) and a plethora of blog entries regarding the matter.

I, too, decided I'd dedicate this one post to the topic.

Initially I had no desire to write about anything with the words Schiavo and feeding tube anywhere in its body; that is, until I decided to browse through a few of the sites, where I stumbled upon a few videos of Terri.

The first question that popped into my head was "hmmm, could they be altering the video to sway the masses toward their cause?"

When the issue first became a perpetual sentence on the ticker tape of all news channels, my feelings on the matter were quite set in stone.

The woman is brain dead, just let her rest in peace for crying out loud. What kind of life is she living now? Her poor husband, suffering the ordeal with her for the last 15 years, decided it was time to let go. I couldn't agree more.

Then I watched a few clips of Terri, responding to questions by the medical professionals, greetings from her mother, tests to stimulate her in anyway possible.

It was then that I realized this woman may still be perfectly aware inside her brain. When asked to open her eyes, she eventually did (though it took a few seconds, I guess for her ears to tell her brain to tell her eyes to open). When her mother walked into the room, she smiled.

I wasn't so sure about them having removed the feeding tube anymore.

The human body cannot survive without food for more than 30 days.

It cannot survive without water for more than a week.

What if she really does feel like she's starving to death? Not very humane, is it?

I think they could have gone about the matter in an entirely different way.

There are other ways to end the suffering of those who have no quality of life whatsoever- put them to sleep, etc- instead of starving them to death.

Ultimately, the conclusion I came up with is this: I agree with putting her out of her misery. Regardless of whether or not I needed a ventilator to sustain my life (which Terri Schiavo does NOT, which means she's breathing on her own and her heart is still functioning on it's own), if I couldn't move, communicate, look after myself, or be an active member of society, I'd want someone to "pull the plug", if you will.

Lesson learned: Draw up a living will, so no selfish family members can keep me alive just because they're too afraid to let go.