Just so there's no confusion...

[msvader]

With all the talk about the Schiavo case and a good friend of mine posting about it on his blog (see the March 23rd entry), I've been thinking a lot about my own wishes. What do I want to happen to me if I'm past the point of no return

Comments

[cookieguggelman]

I basically agree with everything there. I would never want to be a vegetable. I just feel uneasy about the whole removing-the-feeding-tube-thing in Schiavo's case. It's such a slow process, not like removing a respirator. What a tragedy to live so many years of your life like that. Hopefully she's not aware of the dehydration.

[bayonnebirdie]

I agree, too. I'm all for dying with dignity, but I don't see dignity in starving to death. Ted Bundy met a quicker end.

[msvader]

What I don't understand is that we have no problem "humanely" assisting our animal friends in a dignified and painless death, and yet we can't do that for ourselves. I'm not saying that assisting in a quick and painless death is something to be taken lightly, but in situations like these, it should definitely be an option.

All I know is that if I were in Terri's situation, I'd hope that someone would have the kindness and compassion to pump me full of morphine or whatever to just painlessly end it. I'd probably opt for the same thing if I were terminally ill with some painful and debilitating disease. No sense in suffering intense pain just so that I can be "alive" for a few more weeks or months. That's not living, that's slowly dying. And that's no way to go.

[joshg138]

How is starving to death any less (or more) dignified than suffocating to death. That is exactly what happens when someone is taken off a respirator. The dignity is that you're not being kept alive artificially. Once you strip away the emotion of it all, the only difference between being taken off a respirator and being taken off a feeding tube is time. It takes longer to die once the feeding tube has been removed.

[livii]

Great post. I feel the same way. I don't even care about the PVS/MCS debate going on - I don't want to be MCS either. I really don't. And I don't care if my eyes can follow a balloon - to me, especially having experienced life as I am now, that just wouldn't be living anymore.

[msvader]

I can't agree more. Just because I have reflexes doesn't mean that I'm all there. Keeping me alive because you can't resolve the facts in your own head is selfish and irresponsible. Don't keep my body alive for years because you can't let go. I'm already gone.

[anonymous]

I have a living will, because I don't want there to be any question. However, the Schiavo case wasn't about her right to die, but rather about someone else's right to decide for her. I think a good argument can be made for both her husband and her parents being compromised by their own motives, so who knows what she really wanted? What I or anyone else would want is irrelevant. That's why I wrote it down. I don't want half my family to fight the other half over my wishes if they're just guessing.