Terri Schiavo has been severely brain-damaged, to the point where she has been in a vegetative state since 1990. Her husband, understandably in my view, would like to remove her feeding tube and allow his wife Terri to find her rest.
The question this case poses is can death be compassionate? In my view the answer is yes, since in some cases prolonging life is equivalent to prologning suffering. In fact I would like to say that if I am in a vegetative state please unplug me, since I can think of no prison worse. Don't be hasty about it, mind you, but if the medical consensus is that I won't recover play "There is a balm in Gilead" by the Fisk Jubilee singers, place flowers beneath my nose, and wave goodbye.
I strongly feel that a decision such as this ought to be Mike's alone and is hard enough to make without the Federal government getting involved in the case. As it is the feeding tube has been removed twice only to be reinserted later on. I think it is a case of big government over-stepping it's role and interfering with the intimate moral decisions of a family.
Imagine what it must be like to come to the conclusion that death is in the best interests of someone you love. How can anyone meddle in that awesome duty that a husband and wife must sometimes bear?
Difficult decision
ADDENDUM: Click here for a good example of Presidential hypocrisy on this issue.
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