Terri's Dead. Congratulations

Memo

TO: The Death Merchants in our judiciary, political arena, media, and healthcare industry

FROM: Dirty Harry

RE: Congratulations

Yes, congratulations. Why would I not congratulate you? You accomplished something extraordinary. Something I never imagined you could. Not in this country, anyway. You set out to kill a young woman and kill her slow. Real slow. Over many days. You who were aghast at Abu Ghraib. You who oppose lethal injection. You who wail for trees and spotted owls. And you not only killed this woman slow -- evil has accomplished that before -- but even more impressive, you did it with the full backing of the judiciary system, the support of the mainstream media, and with public opinion on your side. So, congratulations are in order. It's an extraordinary accomplishment. I tremble at what or who is next, but won't begrudge you your victory.

But can I ask you something? Because I've read your columns and have heard you screaming on TV for the head of this woman, but I still have just one question. And if you would, I'd like a yes or no answer. Because it's an important question and anything but a yes or no is not answering it. And in exchange for that simple yes or no -- I'm going to give you something. I'm going to give you complete and total agreement with every point you have been pressing in print and television. I'm going to say you're right and I'm wrong to everything. But when we're done here, you have to answer yes or no. Okay? Are we agreed? Good.

You say she's a vegetable. Okay. She's a vegetable. I'm sorry... Was.

You say she was suffering in that state. Okay. She was.

You say she was was not suffering from the starvation and dehydration. Okay. She wasn't.

You say nearly twenty courts reviewed this case and it is the single most litigated and reviewed euthenasia case in history. Okay. It was.

You say the medical evidence is unimpeachable. Okay. It is.

Does that cover it? Can we move on now? Because now I have a question. The question. Really, the only question that matters. And you've been avoiding it. But we can get to it now because I've agreed to everything you've said and now it's only this small tiny detail that remains. And remember, yes or no. We agreed.

If a twenty year old woman is watching a television show and mentions she doesn't want to live on artifical life support, is that good enough? I mean, really. Is that good enough to slowly starve her to death in front of her parents. She left nothing in writing. Whatever she was watching, it was not about being starved to death. She was twenty. Let me say that again: She was twenty. Not old enough to drink. Not old enough to play the nickel slots. The year before we called her a teenager. A comment during a television wrought this. And it was her husband who said she said it. But not until a full seven years after her accident. So, yes or no? Is that the standard? You are absolutely sure based on that you did the right thing starving her to death? Your threshold of proof has been met. Yes or no?

Because I watch TV and I've said things. My wife too.

"If you cheat on me, I'll kill you."

"Let's move to Antarctica."

"Yeah, I'd leave you for Tina Turner."

"I'd kill him."

"If I ever watch a reality show, kill me."

I'm not saying these things to be funny. But this is what you do when you're watching television. And I'm not twenty. Far from it.

So, yes or no? Is a comment during a television show enough? Hey! Hey! Hey! Shut up! We agreed. I don't want to hear about "how the courts thought it was enough." I want to know if YOU think it's enough. Yes or no? Why won't you answer?

You bastards.

Welcome fellow LaShawn fans. We hope you'll take a look around and visit again. More on Terri here and here.

Comments

[Richard Bennett]

Of course it would be, not that the question really applies to this case.

It's really not very complicated. Most people, polls say something like 80 to 90 percent, don't want to live in a persistent vegetative state. So if you just pick out some random stranger on the street, chances are overwhelming that they wouldn't want to be looked up to a pump for 15 years while lying immobile in a hospital bed. That's normal, and you don't need to watch TV to figure it out. (You sound like you watch way too much cable news, by the way.)

Some people are different, but their friends and family generally know it. So why would you try and pretend this is such a murky question when it's simply a very widely-held common sense position, kinda like the opposition to the torturing of kittens probably is.

My question for you is why you would want to make an outrage and a spectacle of an event that is, and should be, a normal part of the tragedy of everyday life?

Do you honestly think that anyone who doesn't think Joe Scarborough is the second coming of Jesus takes you seriously?

[Jennifer D]

I must first start out by correcting part of your statement. If memory serves me correctly, euthanasia is known as "doctor assisted a suicide" by request of a sick and coherent patient. Removing someone from a feeding tube is no such thing. Actually, as defined by law, removing a person from a feeding tube is considered removing someone from life support just the same as having to remove someone from a ventilator. So when a family member has to make the decision of removing a loved one from life support in a hospital, is that considered murder? I think not because our law says we have the right to make that choice. As a matter of fact, on the living will that you fill out, being removed from a feeding tube as a means of life is a choice that is given as a form of life support. So before you start calling this a euthanasia case, do a little research first.
I agree, the husband in this case seems to be a little uncaring and insensitive to the family. After this terrible ordeal, the family should have been allowed to be with their daughter during her death. If he had the chance to put her in rehab, he should have done it. If she has been braindead all these years b/c of his decision not to rehabilitate her, then shame on him. But the fact still remains, she had no quality of life. How can you sit there and honestly say that she was aware of her surroundings? This women had been braindead for 15 years, hasn't she suffered enough? Was it too much to ask to allow her to die and be in peace. Apparently, the part of her brain that was damaged was the part that feels hunger and thirst. Not to mention, she was medicated on morphine. Anyone who has been on morphine knows that you really and truly don't feel a thing. When you remove a person from a ventilator, is that suffocating them? People have been making that diffcult choice for years and is widely accepted. Most people would agree that living in that state of mind is not a the kind of life they would want to lead. A family will take any indication of life and awareness and run with it. I know if that was my mother or brother, I would want so badly for their noises and eye movement to mean there is someone home in their mind. The reality is that she had mere reflexes not reactions. Living in a hospice, being cared for 24/7 is not life. Life is living, being prodctive, being aware and this was not the case. If you choose to side with life, why not let that life go on to a better place and be at peace. As a family, you can't hold on to your own selfish wish of recovery for them . The worst part, is having her picture from the hospice being shown all over the news. How degrading, to parade her around as a spectacle. This is a human who should have been allowed some dignity in her life and death.
The only way for anyone to know the full truth, is to know what evidence has been presented to the courts in deciding this case. Something extraordinarly convincing must have been shown to them for all the courts except for a small few to side with the husband. The courts were designed to decide and interpret law and facts, not to make decisions based on personal feeling.
No one in this case is completely right or wrong and definately no one came out a winner. Both sides of the case can be seen. If you want to side with life, let that life go on to a better place.
If I were you, be a little more understanding and sensitive before you start calling our federal court system murderers. They are the same " murderers" that put criminals away in jail. This is a not a murder case. This is a life support case that went extremely awray. You need to check your defintion of murderer as well.
PS: Trey, u r the best big bro!

[Jennifer D]

One more thing, while I was just thinking about it.....
Because a person is not old enough to drink, gamble or that they are only twenty ( one year past being called a teenager), that means they aren't old enough to make rational decisions? Being a person close to that age, I find that offensive. You are basically saying that anyone who is around that age, doesn't know what they want out of their life and death? You are old enough to vote, drive, smoke cigarettes, work, go to college, buy a home, have children and get married but you aren't old enough to decide how you want your own death to be if God forbid something tragic happen? There is a word we use for this close minded way of thinking and we call that dumb. If I were you, I would pack my bags and move to Antartica where there aren't any immature twenty year olds around making their own decisions.

[george fillmore]

my son was killed a couple of years ago and I was just wondering the other day what I would have done if he had remained alive but in the similar state that terri was in--

if I knew that my son was not hurting and was in no mental anguish over his condition (of course, how can you be sure of either), would I be willing or able to have his feeding tube pulled?-

I probably would not--

if that's selfish of me, so be it--I miss my son so bad that any vestige of him would be worthwhile--

[Frank DiSalle]

Great, great post.
My own opinion is that the poll answers on "Would you want to be kept alive, if you were in a PVS"?, like the answers to "Should women be free to have abortions without governmental interference?" are really answers for "public consumption." I believe that people give the answer they think they should give.
Because, you know what my answer would be to the "PVS question"? The same as Drew Carey's: Hell, yeah! Keep me alive! I could be having a great time in a coma. How do you know? Maybe they'll come up with a cure for what I've got, next week..."
In other words, life always, always, always, gets the benefit of the doubt.

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