Okay, Who Is Next?

It now appears that Michael Schiavo may have won his 15 year battle to end his wife's life. The feeding tube was removed from Terri five days ago and the appeals by Terri's parents to have it reinserted have thus far failed. This horrible miscarriage of justice chills me to the core.

Now I am wondering what the ramifications are going to be for others in similar situations. I don't have statistics for how many people in the US are currently in assisted living or long-term care facilities and are officially disabled. However, the numbers of senior citizens in this country is increasing. Of course, the government pays for medical care through various programs for many, many people in these facilities.

Since so many have expressed an opinion on how painful it is for Terri to be "trapped" in her body and how low (or nonexistent) her quality of life must be, I wonder just how long it will be before serious thought is given by some as to whether the government should continue to pay for medical care for people who are "vegetables". After all, the quality of life for people like that must be horrid. Surely they wouldn't want to live like that. Would they?

I have seen people in their late 80s and early 90s who do nothing more than lie in their bed, wearing diapers and have all their nutritional needs met through a feeding tube, just like Terri Schiavo. There are people who have suffered injuries and who are quadriplegics and paraplegics and must have either constant attention or part-time care on a daily basis. Children are born every day with mental and physical disabilities that will necessitate constant attention for every day that they live.

Would there even be an outcry if the government said they would no longer fund care for the severely disabled people in this country? After all, why should those people cost us money when they are only existing anyway, right?

Don't think it couldn't happen.

God Have Mercy

It strikes me as extremely suspicious that Michael Schiavo has been working so hard and so long to make sure that his wife, Terri, has her wishes carried out and that she be allowed to die.

He claims that she said she would never want to live in a vegetative state and yet he can produce no documentation or witnesses to support that. He also has denied therapies and treatments that may have improved her quality of life. He has refused to turn over her care to her parents and family members who have begged for that very thing.

What devotion. What love. What concern for Terri. Please, Michael, you could not come off more insincere if you tried. Instead of having the integrity to divorce your wife, you instead set up house with a new woman and have had two children with her. That sir, makes you guilty of bigamy which I believe is still a crime.

Let's consider just for a second the possibility that Terri really did express a desire to not be kept alive artificially. Did she mean on a ventilator? Did she mean by a feeding tube alone? Because those are two very different situations.

In situations like this one, I think it would be better for the decision to err on the side of life. If Terri's quality of life is what shocks some people, they should consider people like Christopher Reeve, Stephen Hawking, Joni Eareckson, Jill Kinmont, and others, who have gone on to live productive lives with severely debilitating injuries or diseases. Maybe all of those people would have made us less uncomfortable if they had been allowed to die?

There is much to consider, but I still think that we should try to err on the side of life whenever possible.