Warning... long rant ahead... please evacuate this post if you don't want to read a lot...
If this woman had been in a car accident, and been put on life support immediately following, this would not have been an issue. It is the NEXT OF KIN'S decision to continue life-sustaining measures in these cases, and a husband is legally considered 'next-of-kin'. If she had been in an accident, he could have pulled the plug and it would have been done. The issue is that it's a feeding tube, and not an artificial life-supporting machine. But, she has not shown any improvement in her state in 15 years, and doctors have said that there is no reason to believe that any amount of therapy will bring Terri back to the cognisant world. Also, it has been documented that death by lack of nutrients in this situation is actually very peaceful (Read 3/20 NY Times). People keep saying that her husband is 'being selfish'; that he wants her to die "so that he can be with another woman". I don't really see what the problem with that is. She was incapacitated at the age of 26, so they had only been married a short time. I don't believe it is selfish for someone to want to be able to move on in their life, without the person they originally thought they were going to spend it with. Her husband should not have to worry about taking care of her well into his own old age. Maybe he wants to have a family, or just wants to have someone to actually talk to and be with in his own golden years; after all, he could only take care of her for so long before it is too much for him... Letting Terri die doesn't mean that he loves her any less, it's just that he needs to get on with his own life rather than sustaining the life of someone who doesn't even know that they are alive. If I were in Terri's position, in that sort of vegetative state, I would not want to be kept alive for the sake of being alive; because what point is there to being alive if you can't actually live your life?? This has been a big debate where I work lately, but I am speaking from my own experience. A feeding tube kept my grandfather alive for almost 3 months after he could no longer eat due to advanced brain cancer. Though I am glad that the feeding tube kept him alive long enough for me to see him one last time (he lived in OH whereas I live in GA), I also feel like he had lived a full life, and keeping him alive past that point only made the time he had left harder, because he became a burden (or so he felt so) on those around him. He had to be fed every 2 hours, and couldn't be left alone since he was so weak he may fall down and hurt himself. From talking to him over the Christmas holiday, I know he felt this way, and at that point he just wanted to go. This was hard on my grandmother, because she couldn't leave the house for more than 10 minutes at a time for 5 months, even to just go to the grocery store. I feel like he may have suffered more because of the fact that some of his children (I have 5 aunts and uncles) just couldn't bear the thought of letting him go peacefully. Even right before he died (at the age of 76), there was an appointment for him to undergo even more radiation therapy for his three brain tumors. I feel that after a reasonable amount of time, there comes a point where a decision has to be made that will benefit all involved, whether or not it is a favorable decision for those that are still fully in this world and mentally able to make such decisions. These things are hard, but these decisions are what makes us human (aka compassionate) enough to recognize when the suffering of one person is not worth the gratification of others.
_________________ I'm not bad; I'm just drawn that way.
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