Yes, I'm still disturbed by it too
Posted By: GhostMom on 2009-06-06
In Reply to: Has anyone else been disturbed... - Hmmmmmmmm
It was horrifying to me that her husband, who had long since created a new family with another woman, had such a vested interest in carrying out what he claimed to know were her wishes. Her parents were begging for the chance to care for her themselves, and he couldn't let that happen? There was, I believe, a million-dollar life insurance policy at stake.
I'm a nurse and am aware that Terry's medical condition and mode of death are by no means unique. In fact, withdrawal of tube feeds is common practice in the terminal stage of illness. The difference is that Terry's condition wasn't terminal in itself; it was the act of withholding nourishment from her that caused her death.
For the past year I cared for a 3-year-old who was profoundly neurologically impaired from birth. She was verbally unresponsive, fed by GT, and absolutely precious to her family, who had realistically made her DNR months earlier. One night a few weeks ago she went to sleep and didn't wake up the next morning. Her parents and siblings were devastated but said they were comforted by knowing she had lived out the natural course of her life among people who loved her. It struck me again that Terry Schaivo wasn't allowed to live out the natural course of her life because someone else decided it had no quality.
It will always bother me.
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Has anyone else been disturbed...
by the Terry Schiavo case? I know at the time it was going on, I was HORRIFIED that they were actually going to starve that poor woman to death and still to this day it bothers me in a sense. I get the fact that people have the right to choose whether to keep their loved ones on the ventilator and such, but this woman was living and breathing on her own, just needed a feeding tube. They decided to remove that tube and starve the woman to death because she was brain dead? Some people are born basically brain dead. Her parents wanted her to stay alive, but her husband didn't? I mean come on! I think if ONE person wanted her to stay alive and was willing to care for her, even if it was a distant cousin, then she should have been kept alive! That is disturbing.
He is mentally disturbed.
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