The Final insult

[Guest charlie]

I don't think her husband mistreated her at all. When you look at just the FACTS of the case it looked to me like he did everything he could to make sure she received treatment and was cared for in the nursing/hospice homes she was in.

I have children. If someone tried to pull the plug quickly I'm sure I'd be very alarmed but this is not what happened in this case. I wouldn't do to my children what was done to this child/Terri. I think these parents got into a peeing contest with her husband over money and it became like two dogs fighting over a bone. Pathetic!

I'll tell you one thing, if I ended up like Terri Shiavo and my overbearing parents tried to keep me like that forever I'd expect my wife to do just what Michael Shiavo did, and I told her that too when this was being played out on national television.

My overwhelming feelings of compassion are not with those parents or the husband but with Terri Shiavo. If there'd been any hope at all, I could have seen keeping her on artificial life support. After all, people can be in comas for years and come out of it.....but she wasn't in a coma or in any condition in which a recovery was possible; she was basically among the living dead.

I do wonder one thing about this in regards to her condition. Has the soul already left the body when someone is in that condition and the body is being sustained by artificial means? Or do you think the soul is trapped in the body until the artifical life support system is shut off and all bodily functions have ceased?

[hmh]

When we refer to a person as 'it" and say she was already dead, because she needed a feeding and drinking tube, although she was breathing on her own, is an insult to Terry. Even though her brain may have been half the size of a normal human, the proof of what truly happened will only be told when Christ returns and her husband stands before God to answer for all he has done, providing he doesn't change and truly gives his life over to God before then, she was still a human being who deserved the same dignity as the rest of us.

[nebula]

If there'd been any hope at all, I could have seen keeping her on artificial life support. 

No - artificial support is a machine that does what your brain can no longer do.

This was a feeding tube.

It's a bit different.

[Cerran]

How? She would never be able to eat on her own, would have never been able to get better, and there was no hope of recovery. At what point do you suggest that letting the person die with some dignity? Especially when that is what she wanted in the first place.

It shocks me that people here have so much compassion for a woman who was in such a state and so little for thousands of Iraqis killed in an immoral war.

Talk about a double standard.

[nebula]

We only have Michael's word on "Terri's wishes" - and why did it take so long?

Dehydrating to death is dying with dignity?

[yomotalking]

[Guest charlie]

Even though her brain may have been half the size of a normal human, the proof of what truly happened will only be told when Christ returns and her husband stands before God to answer for all he has done, providing he doesn't change and truly gives his life over to God before then, she was still a human being who deserved the same dignity as the rest of us.

Unbelieveable! YOU are assuming the husband is guilty of something when nothing of the kind has been proven. To the contrary all the FACTS in this case point to justice for Terri finally being done and the husband being in the "right". If anybody involved in this has something to worry about on judgement day imo it would be all of those pundits and lawmakers who made a big "show" of this tragedy for their own personal gain.

[Guest charlie]

Dehydrating to death is dying with dignity?

Keeping a tube stuck down her throat forever is dignified? Watching her poop her pants forever and needing changed is dignified? Showing her on television lollying around and grunting is dignified? I'm sorry but it's bad enough that this poor girl's life ended so tragically but was humiliating her really necessary.

I'm starting to wonder if some people really, deep down, don't believe in life after death and that's why they were so desperate to keep Terri Shiavo in this biological limbo.

People really need to stop pointing the finger at the husband and implying that he did something to her. I worked with a girl who just dropped dead at age 32 going up a flight of stairs. Everyone thought her husband killed her too, including me but after two autopsies nothing could be found that caused her death. Everyone suspected foul play until two years later when her 28 yr old brother was talking to another sailor on board his ship when he dropped to the floor dead. Same thing there; nothing could be found wrong with him.

Sometimes people just die.

[Kansasdad]

Did any one see the case just recently here in Kansas. A girl much Terry's age was in a terrible accident. she was left unable to talk, walk, move any limb, or eat. She could only follow her mother and father around the room with her eyes. She had no hope of recovery. none. All the doctors said the same, no recovery was possible. The parents put her in a local nursing home and visited every day for hours. It was very difficult for them. They eventually started coming less often, once a week, once a month, every 3 months, but they still always came. After 15 years she started making horrible noises, like screaming, or she would open her mouth in a silent scream. It absolutely tore the father apart, he couldn't see her this way. It was very very difficult for him to visit her. They received a phone call after another 5 years had past, the nurse told the mother that someone wanted to talk to her, and her daughter said over the phone, MOTHER. After 20 years of a persistive vegatative state they now have their daughter again. Yes she is very much different. She is receiving intensive loving theapies, she is learning to eat again, take steps, and talk. She has a long way to go.

This has been on our local news several times, they have been tracking her progress as doccumented on film by our local new outlets, interesting the national news has not picked this up.

No the husband was not vindicated by the autopsy. We do not have the right to measure the value of life, and Terry was alive. There are thousands of people who have feeding tubs, this does not make them less valuable. She was alive and now she is dead. She is dead because she thirst to death. A horrible death. There was no dignity in it, and yes Terry's life was precious and valuable no matter how you try to measure it. We don't have that right.

This was the most blatant vile act a court system could do to a human being, a creation of God. To defend this act is to defend the undefensible. It was abhorrent, vile and retched.

The whole thing made me sick and very ashamed of America.

Kansas Dad

[Cerran]

I still haven't had anyone answer this question:

If there were clear instructions from Terri for no support measures in Terri's case would you support her being disconnected from the feeding tube?

Yes or No?