Terri Schiavo, the 41-year-old Florida woman who has been hospitalized for 15 years since her heart stopped beating temporarily in 1990, is expected to die in the next few days.
Terri’s husband, Michael, thinks she should be allowed to die, while her parents have only just now given up the fight to keep her alive. The fact that Congress got involved in this particular woman’s personal affairs in the first place as opposed to someone else’s (or anyone’s for that matter) is beyond me.
It turns out that there are many myths surrounding the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case. Although a Florida judge ruled to the contrary four years ago, Terri is not in a persistent vegetative state. That means the absence of any kind of cognitive behavior or voluntary action. It means not being able to interact with one’s environment in any way, shape, or form.
Mrs. Schiavo does not fit this bill.
According to
www.terrisfight.net,
she displays voluntary behaviors similar to that of any healthy human being, meaning that she "responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones, physically distances herself from irritating or painful stimulation and watches loved ones as they move around her."
So while she may be limited in what she is able to do, she certainly is not unconscious to the world around her. However, what many people who want to keep her alive don’t realize is that she can no longer be a productive member of society.
This issue has sparked debate from both sides of the euthanasia issue. When it comes to animals, euthanasia is used only as a last resort in instances where the animal is no longer capable of living a healthy, comfortable life.
For whatever reason, the animal reaches a point where medical assistance is no longer of any help. The purpose of euthanasia is to relieve the animal (and its owners) of any prolonged suffering.
The feeding tube that had been sustaining Schiavo’s life since the early ‘90s provided her with nothing more than sustenance. It did nothing to improve her condition.
Schiavo’s husband Michael has since begun a family with another woman but still maintains guardianship over his wife. He claims she would not have wanted to remain living in a state such as she is in now. While I have no reason to believe what he says is true, I have to say that I agree with him on one thing: her parents and everyone else should just let go.
By allowing her to live, they are not really doing her any favors, only prolonging unnecessary suffering as mentioned before. And while Schiavo is not an animal (in the same sense, anyway), she is no longer able to live productively.
By allowing her to die, her parents would be relieving themselves of the strain of having to care for her and of having their attempts be continually futile.
There is a difference between preserving the life of a person who may once again be able to live it, and live it well, and preserving someone’s life when they will in no way progress from their present condition. Part of being a humanist, at least IMO, is the belief that to free people from unnecessary pain and suffering is to be acting in their best interests.
But the paradox remains that her husband (also IMO) relinquished the right to be her sole guardian when he jumped into bed with the other woman.
Some of you on this forum might accuse me of being a hypocrite or whatever, I certainly know that I am no Saint, but one thing I have taken extremely seriously since my Army days is any promise I make(which is the reason that I hardly make them in the first place).
I am a Roman Catholic like Mr Schiavo, and in the Roman Catholic church, the marital vows are one of the most sacred things there are, church going(like Mr Schiavo) or non-church going(like me), you are expected to keep those vows. Mr. Schiavo took a vow which clearly states for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, united till death do us part. His wife may have been technically dead as some people will say, but she is not yet dead!
I'd have pulled that plug 10 years ago when it became clear that she wasn't going to recover, instead, he went to get laid. In doing that, he lost the right to be her sole guardian.
As for her parents, they are not even thinking of their child in a humane way, they are thinking of themselves. You see, no parent wants to bury his own child, and that is what I think is motivating them, but f*ck it, Mr and Mrs Schneider, Terri's gone.
One of the things that makes us human in the ability to socialize with other humans. And in order to socialize, you have to be able to make contact. Mrs. Schiavo has been incapable of that for the last 15 years, and personally I'll come from the grave to slap whoever lets me live so long in such a state.
Pull the plug. Let her die. Let the suffering end.
ChetaChukwu George Nwanze
Abuja, Nigeria
0748 30March2005
Edit: The site
www.terrisfight.net was pulled down yesterday due to exceeded monthly quota.
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