Duffy ([info]jduffy1535) wrote,
@ 2005-03-24 16:56:00
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A few thoughts on the Schiavo situation.
The part of me that doesn't believe in coincidence sees meaning in the fact that the Holy Week news cycle has been dominated by a woman, unable to communicate or swallow, slowly starving to death.

I feel that we are making too much of Terry Schiavo's life, but perhaps America needs to take moral lessons where it finds them. This is a situation where the law seems to be (I can only assume, as the various judges seem to be unanimous) clear, but at odds with our (at least my) instinct for mercy. Terry's husband has been trying to rid himself of his wife for the last 15 years. His interpretation of his wife's will is based on the thinnest of pretexts. But the law is not written in such a way as to discriminate between a good husband and an evil one. Much as almost 2000 years ago the law did not discriminate between a thief and the Man whose death at the hands of the state we will celebrate tomorrow.

Whoever comes to Him will not hunger, whoever believes in Him will not thirst. Terry will soon be beyond our power to help. Perhaps we will now look as a nation at the morality of allowing anyone to be starved to death, to put them out of our misery. We have been moving slowly toward the acceptance of euthanasia, maybe this will help us move away from it.



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[info]jduffy1535
2005-03-25 11:43 pm UTC (link)
My understanding of the basic facts of the case mirror yours, but I have made a point of not studying the specifics. My point was that there are two questions. First, should Terry be starved to death? Second, does the law require that Terry be starved to death? They have very different answers. Should the feeding tube should be removed or not is not the same as whether the feeding tube can morally be removed or not.

In Terry's case I believe it is immoral to remove the feeding tube because the family never came to a consensus on the situation. Even if Terry wanted to die, I can't believe she would want to die badly enough to let her family suffer as they are now.

In the more general case of whether the feeding tube can ever be morally removed from a comatose/vegetative patient, I would agree with Meghan that the hope of recovery outweighs the burden, but that is a decision that is not mine to make.

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