Terry Schiavo Was NOT Murdered!

[Lance]

I am so damn sick and tired of threads like this at GLP and similar comments elsewhere!

Why was T[erry] Schiavo killed in such an inhumane way?

Apologies if this has been posted and discussed ad infinitum before. I would just like some answers on this issue that I feel did not receive the attention it deserved, while T was being killed from thirst and starvation.

Why did they not kill her in a humane way such as from a morphine overdose or some such? Why was she made to suffer for so long? What was the point?

You can agree or disagree with the decision to kill her as punishment for having a terminal disease. The issue I would like to discuss is why did it have to be done in such a cruel way?

Apparently some people think this was a unique occurrence. That Terry Schiavo was the only person permitted to pass away in the fashion. Not hardly!

Every day in hospices all across this country patients have feeding tubes removed. In many cases, if not most, the decision to remove a feeding tube was made by the patient through a Living Will and therefore not a burden suffered by the family during an already tragic time. In other cases decisions like this are made by a family member or family as a group. Rarely, the choice may even be made by medical personnel and override choices made by the family to sustain care.

How ever the choice is made, the choice is made often. The only differecnce in the Terry Schiavo case was the media attention it received.

[neocracker]

Don't you just love idiots who post things like that on GLP? Obviously, the poster has never gone through such an experience. I have - twice.

In 1998 with my mother and in 2002 with my father. My mother had leukemia that ravaged her body in one and one-half years (diagnosed in August 1996). Chemo, interferon, and blood transfusions were no longer having any positive effect by late 1997 so she was placed under hospice care. After her last stint in ICU she basically refused all food and water. We respected her wishes and she finally passed on January 14, 1998. Cause of death was complications from leukemia and dehydration. She was medicated to alleviate all pain.

Until people experience what I did, they have no right to comment.

[Lance]

Until people experience what I did, they have no right to comment.

Absolutely!!

In December 1997, just before Christmas, my girlfriend's mother suffered a massive stroke. When it became clear there was no hope for her recovery, her instructions of "no artificial life support measures" from her living will were followed and her NG Tube was removed. The next 10 days, including Christmas and New Years, were some of the worst of my life.

[MM_Dandy]

My wife is a respiratory therapist at Avera McKennan Hospital. Often, they are relegated the task of shutting off the respirators that help keep some vegetative patients alive. While she rarely talks about it, the effects on her are noticable.

The decision of whether or not to sustain a loved one's life by artificial means is neither easy nor pleasant. Positive outcomes are rare. The quality of life is so diminished, yet death diminishes us all. I'd rather have my teeth drilled without novocaine. At least I know that the pain from the drilling will be forgotten. At the very least, those who've had to make such decisions deserve peace of mind.

[gillianren]

I know it doesn't exactly compare, but a few years ago, my godmother's sister died of inoperable stomach cancer. she was Catholic. this meant no euthenasia, no assisted suicide, nothing. just a lot of pain until she died.

now, the reason it doesn't compare is that I was here in Washington, and she was in LaVerne, CA. I didn't have to watch her suffer, and I sure as hell didn't have to make the choice. she'd already made it, by God. but I will say that, when my mom told me she'd died, my first response was, "thank God."

another not-quite comparison is that, a year or so after that, my mother was making arrangements to put my grandmother (end stages Parkinson's) into a nursing home because the assisted living facility she'd been in until that point wasn't able to keep her and their license, and for some reason, they picked the license. so my mother, who lived about five miles or so from the assisted living facility, talked with Grandma's doctor and found a really good place for her.

well, my aunt Jane had a fit. "no mother of mine," and all that nonsense. so my mom said, well, fine--Aunt Jane could bloody well handle it on her own. Grandma moved from Pasadena to Lompoc, into Aunt Jane's second-floor condo (she was pretty much wheelchair-bound by that point, of course), where she got pneumonia repeatedly. elder abuse, if you want my opinion, and of course, Aunt Jane finally set up a home-care situation that wasn't in her home.

the funny thing is that Aunt Jane's big argument had been that nursing homes were expensive, and what would Grandma do in five years? to which my grandmother, who was still relatively lucid at that point, said, "Jane, I'm not going to live five years!" and she didn't . . . .

[Мастер]

Apologies if this has been posted and discussed ad infinitum before. I would just like some answers on this issue that I feel did not receive the attention it deserved, while T was being killed from thirst and starvation.

Why did they not kill her in a humane way such as from a morphine overdose or some such? Why was she made to suffer for so long? What was the point?

You can agree or disagree with the decision to kill her as punishment for having a terminal disease. The issue I would like to discuss is why did it have to be done in such a cruel way?

Apparently some people think this was a unique occurrence. That Terry Schiavo was the only person permitted to pass away in the fashion. Not hardly!

Every day in hospices all across this country patients have feeding tubes removed.

I believe approximately 10,000 people starve to death every day in Africa alone.

[Frogmarch]

In this Terri Shiavo case it is there but for the grace of time go I.

Someone of FWIS said that dying from dehydration wasn't painful but I suspect that it is. What would have been wrong with a deadly shot of morphine?

good point KOS though.

[Lance]

In this Terri Shiavo case it is there but for the grace of time go I.

Someone of FWIS said that dying from dehydration wasn't painful but I suspect that it is. What would have been wrong with a deadly shot of morphine?

good point KOS though.

Exactly... That's how screwed up the laws are on this subject in the US.

[Animal]

In this Terri Shiavo case it is there but for the grace of time go I.

Someone of FWIS said that dying from dehydration wasn't painful but I suspect that it is. What would have been wrong with a deadly shot of morphine?

good point KOS though.

Exactly... That's how screwed up the laws are on this subject in the US.

So assisted suicide should be legal? Okay. Cool. Who decides when its time and what criteria should be used? if someone comes up to me and says they are pain and want release, can i shoot them in the forehead?

Do they have to be dying? If so, aren't we all dying everyday? What if I'm a doctor and I diagnose you as having incurable cancer? Can I give you a hot shot right there? After all, why should I let you suffer?

As for living wills, how should they be any more binding than any other will which goes through 6 years of probate?

I'm not taking a stand on either side of the issue. I carry a "death card" in my wallet which is a little laminated business-card sized thing that simply says something along the lines of "don't keep me artificially alive after 48 hours". This is in case I'm not awake. If I am awake, I figure that I have enough balls (since I'm human) to blow my own brains out if I want to.

Instead of bitching and moaning on various forums, why not use those mighty brains and fingers to write up a proposal for all of this, get people to read it over, then send it to the lunk-heads in your state capitol and in D.C.?