maildad

Too bad Terry Schiavo couldn't be a bug or fish- she would be saved by a judge!

My heart is deeply grieved at the moral state of the people of our country. We watch with hard hearts at the deliberate starving of a vulnerable human being. Terri is not on life-support so that the pulling of a plug would result in her immediate or immanent death. We are taking away her food and water in order to kill her. Any healthy human being will die if such necessities are removed, including you and I. This is not a suicide or a mercy killing requested by the victim. Terri is being murdered by our system in one of the most cruel and barbaric manners. And what is her crime? She is still alive and her husband (a "husband" only in legal name since he has fathered a new family) wants her dead. And we are told that this is a private family matter and we should keep out of his business.

We do not tolerate such killings in this society for even our worst criminals. If I were to starve to death an injured animal, I would be charged with animal cruelty and face penalties and perhaps even jail time. Yet we see no problem with starving to death human beings like Terri. We justify our acts by relabeling these people as inanimate objects ( vegetables). This is a chilling precedent! Historically, before genocides and mass murders are committed, the targeted victims are negatively renamed as sub or non humans. In Rwanda the Hutus called the Tutsi victims "cockroaches". Others have been called "parasites", "vermin", etc. The Nazis were required to call the bodies of their victims "dolls" or "puppets" as they threw them into mass graves. We need to think about what we are approving in this country...

We are told that Terri doesn't feel any pain being starved to death. Are we going to believe that too?! I had a close friend who damaged her head in a car accident. After being in a coma for months, she gradually opened her eyes and it was apparent that she had suffered permanent brain damage. Her limbs were drawn up, a trake in her throat prevented sounds, and she was fed through a tube because of the trake. For the next 9 years, everyone thought she did not know what was going on . But then a friend began visiting her on a regular basis and discovered that she seemed to understand some of what was said to her. After experimentation, it was learned that she understood a lot more than anyone had expected, including the caregivers at Lake Park and her doctors. She still had a little control of one crooked finger of one drawn up hand and could point to a paper with numbers and letters on it, spelling out sentences and responding to answers by pointing to yes or no. It took a long time to convince the professionals of her abilities because she would often refuse to cooperate with them. Finally, everyone was convinced. But she had spent many years in humiliation as caregivers treated her like a "vegetable". Eventually she developed other health problems and died 12 years after her accident ( a year ago last November). But even in her pain, she died as a courageous human being. We are very complex creatures and it is presumptuous for us to label someone a vegetable when we can not know what is truly being experienced within that person. Terri Shiavo deserves better!

Thank you for giving me an outlet to express my frustrations over this situation.

Sincerely,

Christy