Terri Schiavo

Okay I may live in a little bubble of not watching the news or reading newspapers but this one is pretty much all over.

No idea who Terri Schiavo is? Juts head over to cnn.com

Alright here's my thoughts...

First of all, if they are really going to figure out if she should live or not they need to really figure out, is she in a persistant vegiatative state or minimal conciousness.

Oksy to me there is huge differences...

"It defines "minimally conscious" as being aware, as definitely being aware of the surroundings around the patient. In other words, does the patient follow simple "yes" or "no" orders? For example: "Lift your arm; can you do this?; Can you not?;" nodding or giving some indication that they're understanding a very simple command.

Or, for example, just being aware of who's around them, being aware when someone enters the room. That would mean minimal consciousness.

That is very different from the persistent vegetative state, where there is no awareness of what's around the person ...

People may come in and leave, and the person is not aware of what's going on around them. And there are different tests that physicians do to determine which the person is in." - cnn.com

So they can't even agree what state she's in (jebus, this country...I would think that would figure that out first of all...)

The parents kinda piss me off honestly, they make claims that Terri want to live by vocalizing "ahhhhhh whaaaan"...to be honest...I don't buy it, they are desperate, they don't want to lose their child. And to make matter more complicated, there is some sort of falling out that happened a few years after Terri's accident, between the folkd and her husband. One thing I wonder, is there some reason the parents weren't made her legal guardians after the accident?

But it does bring up the question, how did Terri let her husband know she didn't want to live? What makes the parents think she does? This would indicate to me that she does have minimal conciousness which in that case, why doesn't some 3rd party ask her the simple questions? Could she fully understand the implication of a question about her life or death?

Okay well either way, I gotta say that is she really does want to die, I say she should be allowed to. I mean if I were in a state wither vegitative or minimal where there was no chance in hell I was going to get better, then by all means kill me. I'd be agony if I could do anything but sit there.

HOWEVER, this is my big thing with all that is going on, I wish they wouldn't starve her to kill her....jebus that would be painful way to die. If she truely does want to die, lethal injection of something, not starvation. Now I know starvation gived the opprtunity to turn back, but I'd want to die quickly, not suffer.

There's my two cents. I don't pretend to be an expert on this, it's a complex matter. Just my thoughts.

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