I have not previously weighed in on the Terri Schiavo fiasco. Not that I don’t care, but I just could not get a handle on what it was that made me so conflicted on this. I would personally not want my life artificially extended (yikes, I guess I just put that in writing, didn’t I? Carol, just be VERY SURE before you pull the plug, ok?). But something else bugged me about this case. A nagging doubt. And Ms. Andrea Harris captured that perfectly in this post. And as she says it is so obvious even a child would know why it is wrong. Death by starvation is inhumane. It really is that simple.
So Carol, morphine or a pillow if you must. Don’t make me starve. It would take quite awhile in my case.
Sweetie, it wouldn’t take you any longer to die in such a situation. You see she will not actually starve to death. Death will be caused by lack of hydration, a build up of toxins in her system that will shut down her kidneys, heart and brain long before she actually burns through the store of fat. Sounds gruesome but I did want to put your mind at ease in case you are ever in such a situation. As for needing morphine, it is unnecessary. Pain is something we feel as a defense mechanism to let us know that we are physically imperiled. For instance stick your hand in a flame and your brain tells you pain so you pull your hand back. Cancer in your back, your brain tells you pain to send you to a doctor. The pain you feel is an interpretation by your cerebral cortex. Terry Shiavo does not have a cerebral cortex so she or rather her brain is unable to interpret the pain. What is truely amazing about this case is the fact that death by starvation as a “medical end solution” is not unique to Terry Shiavo. What is unique in this case is that her parents opposed the decision by her husband to remove the tube and took their case to the public. No one has ever suggested before that these individuals experience pain as a result of this process. Then of course there are people who deliberately starve themselves to death rather than face slow death from a medical condition. These peple do not seem to experience undue pain as a result of their starvation even though they are fully cognitive; although, it is speculated that since pain is a function of cognitive ability that these people merely interpret the pain differently. Oh yes did I mention that the perception of pain is also modified by a person’s emotional state? For what it is worth let me go on record as stating that I would not wish to be kept alive for 15 years in a noncognitive state-no artificial menas for me past a year. Why a year? Because teh likelihood of recovery is very low after a year. Even if a comatose person (different from Terry) wakes up after a year their prognosis is nto good and they tend to relapse. So spare me, spare yourself and spare the kids.
I disagree with Carol….PLEASE DONT STARVE ME…..THe Whole IDEA IS REPULSIVE…There I have written it down…..I repeat PLEASE DONT STARVE ME
Funny, Kate Adamson has experienced this first-hand, she seems to have a different take.
Having undergone surgery without being peoperly anesthetized, and then having food and water withheld for 8 days, she says the pain of starvation was worse.
Thanks for your support Joe. I had to delete the link. It was so long it screwed up the margins and I didn’t know any other fix.
I did take a look see at the article and it seems to be far from a scientific certainty that starvation is as painless as some would have you think.
Sweet darling, science does not say that starving is not painful. It says that pain is interpreted by the cerebral cortex and various factors inclding one’s emotional state will influence how that pain is interpreted. That is why some people like pain and on the other end of the spectrum some people feel pain very easily. I hate to bring it up but you know a fair amount of thirld world children are starving, many of them starve to death yet no ones ever talks about the agony, the unbearable pain that they suffer. Is it because a. they don’t care; b. they never thought about it; c. can’t do anything about it so don’t dwell on it; d. the amount of pain experienced has been greatly exagerated in Terry’s case as another argument why folks who woudl let her die are monsters; e.all of the above.
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