I've read headlines about Terri Shiavo, the woman whose husband has decided that an offhanded remark she made when she was twenty-one, should be the reason to remove her feeding tube and watch her starve to death. The debate is framed as a right-to-die.
Let me rephrase that: ...he is killing her and the state is helping him to do it. When in our history has this ever occurred? When?
I suggest this is no more than the right of an insensitive, dishonorable husband (who meanwhile has shacked up with the mother of his two illegitimate children) to kill. If this man were truly worried about his sick wife, he would relinquish control of her entire person to her loving family and go on about his business of living the life he's made for himself somewhere else.
What kind of man would allow a person he supposedly loves starve to death? The event's imagery shocks me more and more each passing day. And what does this compassionate individual stand to gain by this cowardly act?
As Richard Nixon said, "Follow the money."
Death is So Final
I'm about to share a story that may change your mind about letting people die.
My mother had about six weeks from the time her Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma was diagnosed until she died. Being practical, she placed a no-code on her chart. However, she decided she'd give chemotherapy as try, since it would give her an extra six or so months. Unfortunately, she simply couldn't tolerate the horrible pain caused by the chemo, and thus "gave up," or so she said. It broke my heart when she felt compelled to tell me she's a chicken, that she just couldn't do it.
She endured the deep bone pain that cancer patients deal with and horrible sweating another two weeks, during which time she basically starved herself and would not drink. She had a tube; we tried to feed her. But she didn't want any part of it. By now, she was on morphine for pain management, which is the gift that keeps on taking. Her tolerance became so high so quickly that I knew her respiration would shut down eventually and she would simply die from the results of a suppressed respiratory system caused by the overdose of the drug called morphine, into the arms of Morpheus, after which the opiate is named.
Dosages had to be upwardly adjusted to control the pain, almost daily at first, then hourly at the end. Since she wasn't on a morphine pump, she had to be shot up by humans. I reminded myself of Shirley MacLaine in "Terms of Endearment, " in which she practically mugs the nurse to get her terminal daughter morphine. Since my mother's doctor's order hadn't accommodated her ever increasing need for more morphine, she'd have to spend hours of needless pain until some medical bureaucrat got the message. I was on those nurses everyday to stay on top of it.
The extended family, frankly, seemed amazed that we were letting this happen. I admit I felt great guilt, sort of like I was giving up on God and His ability to change things. But, the fact was: this is what she wanted.
We can't be at all sure that death is what Terri Shiavo wants.
A Civil Society that Eats its Young, Eventually Dies
We cannot allow some swamp judge to define the ideals of this country. We, as Americans, deplore what is happening with Terri Schiavo; as Americans we must demand Judge Greer pull his head out of his Panama hat and step aside.
I hope the president steps up the rhetoric to help Americans define right and wrong, in black and white, that we do not as a society kill disabled people.
Thanks for the read.
Let me rephrase that: ...he is killing her and the state is helping him to do it. When in our history has this ever occurred? When?
I suggest this is no more than the right of an insensitive, dishonorable husband (who meanwhile has shacked up with the mother of his two illegitimate children) to kill. If this man were truly worried about his sick wife, he would relinquish control of her entire person to her loving family and go on about his business of living the life he's made for himself somewhere else.
What kind of man would allow a person he supposedly loves starve to death? The event's imagery shocks me more and more each passing day. And what does this compassionate individual stand to gain by this cowardly act?
As Richard Nixon said, "Follow the money."
Death is So Final
I'm about to share a story that may change your mind about letting people die.
My mother had about six weeks from the time her Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma was diagnosed until she died. Being practical, she placed a no-code on her chart. However, she decided she'd give chemotherapy as try, since it would give her an extra six or so months. Unfortunately, she simply couldn't tolerate the horrible pain caused by the chemo, and thus "gave up," or so she said. It broke my heart when she felt compelled to tell me she's a chicken, that she just couldn't do it.
She endured the deep bone pain that cancer patients deal with and horrible sweating another two weeks, during which time she basically starved herself and would not drink. She had a tube; we tried to feed her. But she didn't want any part of it. By now, she was on morphine for pain management, which is the gift that keeps on taking. Her tolerance became so high so quickly that I knew her respiration would shut down eventually and she would simply die from the results of a suppressed respiratory system caused by the overdose of the drug called morphine, into the arms of Morpheus, after which the opiate is named.
Dosages had to be upwardly adjusted to control the pain, almost daily at first, then hourly at the end. Since she wasn't on a morphine pump, she had to be shot up by humans. I reminded myself of Shirley MacLaine in "Terms of Endearment, " in which she practically mugs the nurse to get her terminal daughter morphine. Since my mother's doctor's order hadn't accommodated her ever increasing need for more morphine, she'd have to spend hours of needless pain until some medical bureaucrat got the message. I was on those nurses everyday to stay on top of it.
The extended family, frankly, seemed amazed that we were letting this happen. I admit I felt great guilt, sort of like I was giving up on God and His ability to change things. But, the fact was: this is what she wanted.
We can't be at all sure that death is what Terri Shiavo wants.
A Civil Society that Eats its Young, Eventually Dies
We cannot allow some swamp judge to define the ideals of this country. We, as Americans, deplore what is happening with Terri Schiavo; as Americans we must demand Judge Greer pull his head out of his Panama hat and step aside.
I hope the president steps up the rhetoric to help Americans define right and wrong, in black and white, that we do not as a society kill disabled people.
Hamlet
... but first we have to kill all the lawyers.
Thanks for the read.
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