No Good Choices..

Judge Won't Order Schiavo Tube Reinserted


Top Stories - AP
By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. - A federal judge on Tuesday refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, denying an emergency request from the brain-damaged woman's parents.

I can’t help but wonder how this will all play out?

There is simply no good ending to this and in the end, I am afraid that Terri Schiavo will be lost in the argument. A person who, it would seem, was long ago damaged physically and now has become the center of so many different agendas. I am never more aware of my own humanity than when I watch the number of people who always wish to play God.

The video of Terri, to say the least, is compelling. It shows a responsive person and goes a long way to shatter my myths of what a persistent vegetative state looks like.
I guess my limited experience leans more toward the ‘Hollyweird’ version, where the person is in a comfy bed and sleeping deeply. I think this makes me feel better than the reality of many who crowd our nursing homes across this country.

I cannot tell you how I feel about this situation; I have long ago given up on clear answers to many of the questions life tosses out. It makes me feel great sadness for all those involved and even some annoyance at those who insist on inserting themselves into this.

What strikes me the most though is the involvement of the political players. We live in a country where the ‘right to life’ seems to outweigh the ‘right to choose the right life you wish to live.’

States that have passed laws for assisted suicide or death with dignity, continually find themselves at odds with the current Administration. When a reasonable adult makes a decision to end years of suffering, I struggle with a Government who feels it is their duty to ‘step in.’

We have no issue when we put our family pets to sleep to end their suffering. We know it is the humane thing to do. Why would we let our beloved pets suffer just to keep them around? We are clearly better people than that.

At the end of all of this, I hope we would treat our fellow man with the same dignity as we treat our pets. I find it odd to think that by merely ‘plugging in’ feeding tubes and other devices to maintain a heart beat…that we somehow, think of this…as life.

The debate on whether or not Terri will suffer as we slowly starve her to death seems well beyond cruel and unusual punishment.

At the end of it all, I want to think that Terri has moved on to be with God a long time ago. We are just arguing over the shell that once housed the soul and spirit of this human being.