Murder
Make no mistake about it, to starve Terri Shiavo is to murder her. It horrifies me and enrages me to see the way this sad case has been twisted around to suggest that killing her would be an act of compassion. People say that they should just "let her die." Its something that one hears all the time. This is the product of a false, stupid, and simply evil myth. TERRI IS NOT DYING. Please get this through your head. She is not on life support. She simply cannot feed herself (neither can a baby, by the way) because she is disabled, so she is being fed. She is NOT in a coma, and she is not in a vegetative state. If they stop feeding her, she will die a horrendous death: by starvation (you know, like the people from Africa you see on pictures?).When I was growing up, my friend's sister was severely mentally handicapped. Her name was Monica and she was loved and cared for by her family. Her situation was very dire, and cognitively speaking, I seriously doubt she was better off than Terri. However, to anyone who ever met Monica, it would have been painfully obvious that if her family had suddenly decided to stop feeding her, it would have been nothing less than murder.
Of course, Terri's family cares for her and would never do such a thing. It is her "husband," who now has another woman, who longs to make things easy for himself by getting rid of her. This is a warped reason for killing somebody, if I ever heard one.
But why don't you check Terri out yourself? You can go see some videos of her on the Terri's Fight website to see just how "vegetative" she is. Do it.
Myths about Terri's case:
MYTH: Terri has been in a persistent vegetative state, a coma, or is terminally ill, for 13 years.
FACT: NO. Terri is disabled and has brain damage, but is not in PVS, coma, or terminally ill.
MYTH: Removal of food and hydration is "death with dignity" and painless.
FACT: NO. Removal of food and hydration is "death with gross indignity" and monstrously painful and ugly even with morphine or other drugs.
MYTH: Food and hydration are "extraordinary means", and thus a patient has the right to refuse.
FACT: NO. Even, and especially, in secular terms, while the use of ventilators, drastic surgery, experimental "therapies", etc., are extraordinary means and may be refused, food and hydration have always been defined in medicine as ordinary means, or "palliative care" (as is the use of antibiotics, needed X-rays, minor surgery, etc.). For Catholics, it is morally permissible to refuse extraordinary means, but not morally permissible to refuse ordinary means, or palliative care (including food and hydration).
Please, please stand against this horrible injustice! Call your representatives at the Florida State Legislative branch. Or, at the very least, pray for her.
Any person with the least bit of concern for the dignity of human life should stand firmly against this. Do you realize what you are saying about the value of the life of physically or mentally handicapped people? Can't you understand that you are saying to a whole class of people that their life is worthless? And they don't like it. Just go to the Not Dead Yet website and see for yourself. How dare you tell somebody that it would be better for them to be dead?!
posted by ertandberni @ 6:23 PM
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