Today is "Terri's Day:" The Fourth Anniversary of the Death of Terri Schiavo
Today is "Terri's Day." It is the fourth anniversary of the end of Terri Schiavo's ordeal of death by dehydration. This cruel end was not a necessary death. It was forced upon her by judicial fiat even though she was not terminally ill, did not require a respirator or kidney dialysis, and had a loving family eager to care for her for the rest of her natural life.
Terri's family believed and believes that she knew when they visited and reacted with joy. But even if she was unaware, she remained a beloved daughter and sister, fully worthy of life and care.
The Schindler family has marked this sad day with the following statement:
The Schindler family has marked this sad day with the following statement:
Four Years Ago Today, Terri Schiavo Dies After Almost Two Weeks Without Food or Water.I wish that Terri's death had convinced people that dehydration is wrong--at least when it has not been explicitly and knowingly requested in writing by the patient ahead of time. Alas, it does not appear to be so. But we can say this: Nobody can ever say again about the dehydration deaths that are happening in all fifty states and around the world as you read these words, "I didn't know." I believe we are all morally accountable for the positions we take on this important ethical issue.
Four years ago today Terri Schiavo died. By the order of Judge George W. Greer, Terri died a slow barbaric death by starvation and dehydration over a period of almost two weeks. We have been posting stories of the events that occurred on each of those days not only in respect for Terri's memory, but a reminder that in this moment countless people are suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals in America and around the world.
Labels: Terri Schiavo. "Terri's Day." Fourth Year Anniverary of Death.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 12:02 PM
16 Comments
16 Comments:
It's wrong when it's explicitly asked for as well, and people who explicitly ask for it don't know what they're asking for and have never experienced it. One would think people would have more sense. Suicide is wrong, assisted suicide is wrong, euthanasia is wrong, and this is wrong. As for morally accountable, everyone who signs a "living will" -- a document courts and legislatures refused to ratify for decades after its original creation in the liberal, drug-fueled 1960 -- is contributing to the culture of death.
Plenty of people don't know, and can say, "I didn't know." If there weren't still plenty who can say that, what happened to Terri could not have happened.
Thanks, Wesley, for this reminder.
I agree, thanks for the reminder Wesley.
Thanks for bringing it up again, Wesley. I'll be honest, though - I think more and more people are being mislead about what happened. Modern media downplay what she went through, and the overall attitude I have heard is, "If anything happened to me like that, I'd like to go out like Terri did." And nobody wants to know that she would have been cared for by her biological family, or that her husband couldn't legally marry his girlfriend until she was dead.
Michael Schiavo was able to get away with this for the same reason doctors and "the medical establishment" are. To say that things are seriously askew in this society is vast understatement. When someone who is not even in distress is unable to speak for him- or herself at the time, and one side wants them to live and another side wants them to die, and the latter can win, it's no longer a society; it's barbarism.
If her death could and would have convinced people that it was wrong, it couldn't and wouldn't have happened.
We let laboratories put signs on lab animals' cages that order that they be starved and dehydrated; why be surprised that it's done to humans now. Humans allow it because they want the "benefits" of experimentation on animals assumed to be enough like us for "benefits" to us to ensue, and those who have condoned it have brought the results onto all of us. Those who condone it deserve to endure those results and I would have no sympathy for them. But evil breeds evil, and innocent humans suffer as do innocent lab animals. "Human exceptionalism" doesn't get it. If it did, it COULD defeat the death culture. SHS is doing a fine job but could do much more if it understood the logic it refuses to see because "we want the eggs."
If it's a slow, agonizing death, how could it be ok to request it in advance? If someone requesting it in advance knew, would they request it? Why are there mechanisms that even allow it to be requested? Who thought THAT up? "Advanced directives" are bogus. No one can know what it will be like at the time if the circumstance the "advanced directive" "covers" manifests. Where does anyone get the nerve to suggest one to anyone, "explain" it to them, endorse, or condone them? Why are they tolerated? It's like buying what one thinks is food in a supermarket and one is really buying poison. Well, people were assumed to be dumb enough to sign them, and they proved that they were, just as happened with Obama getting elected.
It's being done to people even when they didn't "request" it, and getting people to "request" it opened the door to doing it to them willy-nilly. That's the end-game of "advanced directives." There's one born every minute, thanks to whom it's easier for one of them, or one not of them, to be murdered every minute. As with animal experimentation, the "benefits" are outweighed by the cost, and the whole thing is based on inability to be logical.
EVERY day is Terri's day. Not to mention the days that were hers that she didn't get to have.
It would be a hell of a lot kinder to give someone a shot, or a bullet in the head, if they're to be killed. But lack of guts is exactly the problem here.
Once someone has the status of having life support, you can't take it away from them!! Do we take eyeglasses from those who need them, canes and guide dogs from the blind, prostheses from amputees, medicine from the sick? What kind of madness is this? Well I guess really bad madness.
By the way I didn't mean give people shots and bullets; I said IF they're to be killed; they shouldn't be killed; no time or day should be taken from anyone. Making a person's life -- at the end, no less -- a horror is gutless, just as is having had the arrogance to presume to end it in the first place.
We don't allow cruel and unusual punishment for criminals, and we allow THIS? Well we allowed it for innocent lab animals. Anyway, no wonder Obama got elected. Enough people to let what happened to Terri happen, even endorse it, enough to elect him.
It would be interesting to know more about Michael Schiavo's lawyer.
"If it's a slow, agonizing death, how could it be ok to request it in advance?"
It may be so if one's fully cognizant, but if you've been vegetating for the last ten or fifteen years I doubt that you'd notice it. Everyone seems to be forgetting that the results of Terri's autopsy demonstrated that her brain had turned largely to mush, and was capable of functioning at only the most basic level.
God bless you, Terri -- and all the others.
HW: "The most basic level" keeps the body going, and includes sensing pain. "Largely to mush" isn't very specific, or scientific. "Vegetating" is another vague term, "doubt that" isn't surety enough, and "fully cognizant" isn't the only degree of cognizance. The doctors and scientists don't even know all the answers on these things, and you're according them more credence and credibility than they deserve. If you'd ever been present and observed such a situation over time, I doubt you might not change your stance on this issue.
Even if "the most basic level" might or might not include sensing pain, that's not something to fool around with, and error must be on the side of caution and humanity.
As I've written before, basic science textbooks indicate that brain shriveling, blindness, and other aspects of Terri's autopsy are the direct results of dehydration. Not that most of the world cares, or anything.
SAFEpres: Well, WE do. As would most of the world if it were brought to its attention as it should be.
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