Current Events

I have quite a few things I would like to touch on today but I am going to try to keep it down to just a couple. I would like to start off with a question, though. If you were the husband or wife of someone that suddenly became ill, ill to the point of being a vegetable on life support and a feeding tube, could you pull the plug?

The lady, Terri is her name, in Florida is in a vegetative state. After 10 plus years of fighting her husband and her family are at odds over her survival. Her husband wants to pull the feeding tube and her mom and dad do not. Could you do this to your respective spouse? After 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, 20 years? I know I would not want to be kept alive via feeding tubes or life support. My argument is the same as most in my position. I do not want the financial and emotional burden on my family. Years of constant round the clock care along with day after day of seeing someone lying there motionless with barely a brainwave and no hope of recovery (as far as the doctors are telling you). There is always hope. As long as that woman is alive there is hope for a miracle to bring her back. Scientifically, they say its not going to happen. But the argument lies in the moral arena. What is the best for her? Her husband is arguing that she told him that she does not want to be kept alive like that. Her family says differently. Who is right? I can't say either way. I can tell you that the decision to pull the plug on one of my kids or my wife is a decision that I cannot make right here right now. Plus, this is not like turning off a machine and her life ending, this is stopping a feeding tube. I am not a doctor or a lawyer but I am pretty sure that pulling a FEEDING tube will be a slow end to her life. She will be starving to death days after it is pulled. That, to me, is suffering. Unless a doctor was to tell me differently. Now, should our President of the United States get involved? He signed a bill authorizing the federal courts to be able to review the case. He didn't sign a law keeping her alive, just a bill to move the debate to the federal level. I would have thought that the appeals process would have done that anyway, but oh well. This bill is based on a rights issue and that is the argument for moving jurisdiction. Now we have a different "Right to Life" debate in the forefront. Not the normal abortion rights but the rights of an adult to continue life when they cannot speak for themselves. This is scary for many reasons. Biggest in my mind is, when can a doctor proclaim that you no longer have this right? Or does a doctor even make that call? Would a judge or lawyer be in charge of making a life or death call like this? Someone with no medical training whatsoever? What if a doctor makes that call and it is wrong? Doctors are human. They are people. They make mistakes. And I sure do not want our federal government getting muddled into this mess. Politicians change thier positions more often than runway models change clothes. This has all of the markings of a cluster of the most extreme proportions.

What would you do?