Teri Shiavo

I am quite surprised that she didn't get discussed here.

What do people think? I thought it was quite disgusting that she should be allowed to die in that manner.

To be starved and dehydrated for 13 days. If it were me, I would want an injection of morphine or barbiturates, or even carbon monoxide.

Its the difference between omission and comission, but you are still killing here by removing feeding tube, so its still actively doing something to cause death.

I know there will be discussion of murdering the disabled, but if there are safeguards and a good legal process, its much kinder. I thought it was totally cruel and barbaric. Not a way to kill someone.

 

Isn't humankind contrary? We're quite happy (ok, not happy, but we accept) to put animals down "humanely". But Humans can't be given a Humane death. Weird.

I am not a doctor, I do not have the information, therefore I can not make a judgement on whether Teri Schiavo was capable of leading a fulfilling life. In the situation where someone is not capable of it, or are faced with terminal illness and pain, then I support euthanasia as an option. As for each individual case, that's up to the people in that case to decide, either the terminally ill person or someone in a legal and moral position to decide (Husband, for example).

For that particular case Mr Schiavo had made that judgement, but had been blocked several times. What I found most disgusting was the interference of Mr "Moral High Ground" Bush and the deliberate stirring up of a media circus.

 

I agree with both of you. When pressure groups try to politicise any moral topic, they usually try to confuse the argument so that people give up thinking about it [like 'do we need to test cosmetics on animals?' is always turned into 'do we need to test drugs on animals? of course the same industry want to mix the 2 topics up because it makes money from both..] I can see an endless debate about the morality of deciding to terminate if the patient has not decided, but in this case and many others, the patient had made her wishes known in advance when she was fully capable. To stand in the way of those wishes is appalling. Just a shame her parents were so flaky. Because of the hoohaa, the only option the doctors feel safe to do is dehydration etc. What a total mess. Of course it's just another aspect of the moral decadence of humans, which says that we put cows in tins to feed to our pets etc

 

The moral issues surrounding euthanasia in any form will always be a cause of controversy, you cant please all the people all the time etc.

I do know one thing, if I was in the condition that that lady was in, an overdose of barbiturate would do me nicely.

 

i'm pro choice every time.....
cheers


julian.

 

Meaning ...?

 

I know farmers shoot their livestock with a gun when they are not useful anymore even when they are really healthy otherwise like when a horse broke a leg so unable to heal back to be a racehorse anymore. I guess as long as they don't ask me to do it then it would be ok. Let her husband pull the trigger or inject the barbiturate.




The case you refer to above is difficult because the family members could not agree how best to manage her in her last days, yet unwilling to let go of her care themselves and the way they go about it invited attention of the media circus turning the whole sorry situation even more difficult then it should be. It was only right we did not have a public debate here too about her case as it should really be a private affair between people involved. The little details I know afterward suggest the difficulty really starts when she marry a man under circumstances that her parents are not really happy with.

For what its worth, I think vets have it really easy as they have always the 'quick' death option. As far as I know speaking to people, patients in UK even when they are dying with terminal illness are not managed like that. Usually their family and health professional workers look after them as long as possible in the most comfortable way we could for now but when they suddenly took a serious condition like a chest infection, then they move on to another care plan, even using drugs aim to keep some one comfortable and pain free until they die.