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The case of Terri Schiavo [Post May Offend]
Monday, March 21st, 2005 06:49 amI have been prompted to post this morning by the case of Terri Schiavo, (and here and here) a woman in the US who has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990. Her husband who is her legal guardian wants her to be allowed to die with dignity and has been fighting since 1998 for her feeding tube to be removed. He has been successful on three occasions (including this last one) and twice the decision has been overturned by those on the opposite side, Mrs Schiavo's parents and siblings because they:
"believe she can still lead a fulfilling life".
My take on it is that if there is anything left of this woman, she is trapped, unable to do anything inside this shell of a body. I don't think being trapped like that is in anyway a meaningful existance and I think she should be allowed to die.
It is a difficult decision for people to make and the law courts have constantly approved Mr Schiavo's wishes. I do not think that Congress (overwhelmingly republican) should have got involved and certainly should not be passing laws to prevent it. It is government meddling gone mad, and the wrong people are being caught in the middle. Now we have intervention in this case what is to stop them from doing the same in other cases? Or even make abortion illegal again.*
I hope if anything like that happens to me the people who love me will allow me to die with dignity and not stay like that for fifteen years. It isn't a life. It may bring comfort to the family because in a bodily sense the person they love is not dead, but in my opinion they are worse than dead.
I have been told before that Greif is a selfish emotion, and I agree with it. It is an emotion for the living and not for the dead, one that doesn't take into account how much the dead person would have suffered if they had lived, just how much the living person wishes they hadn't died. I think the case of Mrs Schiavo is grief taken to its most extreme level of selfishness by the parents and siblings. In not wanting her to be dead they are denying her right to dignity, and trying to justify it by telling themselves and the world it is because they know she can have a meaningful existance.
I think that is just unfair to her.
My take on it is that if there is anything left of this woman, she is trapped, unable to do anything inside this shell of a body. I don't think being trapped like that is in anyway a meaningful existance and I think she should be allowed to die.
It is a difficult decision for people to make and the law courts have constantly approved Mr Schiavo's wishes. I do not think that Congress (overwhelmingly republican) should have got involved and certainly should not be passing laws to prevent it. It is government meddling gone mad, and the wrong people are being caught in the middle. Now we have intervention in this case what is to stop them from doing the same in other cases? Or even make abortion illegal again.*
I hope if anything like that happens to me the people who love me will allow me to die with dignity and not stay like that for fifteen years. It isn't a life. It may bring comfort to the family because in a bodily sense the person they love is not dead, but in my opinion they are worse than dead.
I have been told before that Greif is a selfish emotion, and I agree with it. It is an emotion for the living and not for the dead, one that doesn't take into account how much the dead person would have suffered if they had lived, just how much the living person wishes they hadn't died. I think the case of Mrs Schiavo is grief taken to its most extreme level of selfishness by the parents and siblings. In not wanting her to be dead they are denying her right to dignity, and trying to justify it by telling themselves and the world it is because they know she can have a meaningful existance.
I think that is just unfair to her.
