The Schiavo case

[pegkerr]

I think that Congress's last-minute shenanigans to prevent Terri Schiavo's husband from removing the tubes are grand-standing and contemptible.

If anyone ever needs to know: if I am ever in a persistant vegetative state and the doctors agree there is no hope for recovery for me, and I haven't emerged after a year, I want the tubes removed. No, I wouldn't want to linger like that.

That is not life.

Comments

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, withdrawing hydration with adequate doses of medicine to keep her comfortable is very humane.

I've seen it done for babies that otherwise wouldn't survive.

There are a lot of deep-rooted emotional issues around food/water, nutrition/hydration and the end of life thereof. I'd *like* to be able to say that it ties in somehow to obesity, America, and our preoccupation with supersizing, but I can't.

I suspect it's something hardwired into the human psyche.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Er, that have no chance of survival. :P

Like a kid with a lethal chromosomal disorder.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the information. My only experience with severe dehydration was when it happened to my mother when she was in a nursing home. That was an entirely different situation, and once everyone realized what was happening, she recovered from the effects (though not from the underlying condition, of course).