Farewell Terri
Terri Schiavo passed away this morning.
I cannot bring myself to condemn all such "mercy killings", these are difficult situations and the families of the ailing should be given a certain amount of "benefit of the doubt". Even the Catholic Church allows for a "double effect" principle, in which a person in unbearable pain may receive a potentially fatal injection of a painkiller. Life can become unbearable, we all understand that.
But it is worth noting that Michael Schiavo and all the other advocates of what has taken place could not even refer to this as a "mercy killing". Is this because they could not face up to what they were doing?
The entire case against continuing to provide Ms. Schiavo ultimately rested on the premise that Terri had expressed this wish. But did we have to grant this wish? Is it possible that Michael Schiavo and his supporters are dodging responsibility by trying to pin this decision on Terri herself?
In the end, the manner in which the decision to deny Terri Schiavo nutrition and water comes across as more an educated guess than a serious effort to ascertain Terri's condition and wishes. Michael Schiavo's version won out, based less on facts than on sheer determination and legal exhaustion. For his sake, I hope he's right, that Terri Schiavo really was in a persistant vegetative state, and that this is what Terri would have wanted.
I cannot bring myself to condemn all such "mercy killings", these are difficult situations and the families of the ailing should be given a certain amount of "benefit of the doubt". Even the Catholic Church allows for a "double effect" principle, in which a person in unbearable pain may receive a potentially fatal injection of a painkiller. Life can become unbearable, we all understand that.
But it is worth noting that Michael Schiavo and all the other advocates of what has taken place could not even refer to this as a "mercy killing". Is this because they could not face up to what they were doing?
The entire case against continuing to provide Ms. Schiavo ultimately rested on the premise that Terri had expressed this wish. But did we have to grant this wish? Is it possible that Michael Schiavo and his supporters are dodging responsibility by trying to pin this decision on Terri herself?
In the end, the manner in which the decision to deny Terri Schiavo nutrition and water comes across as more an educated guess than a serious effort to ascertain Terri's condition and wishes. Michael Schiavo's version won out, based less on facts than on sheer determination and legal exhaustion. For his sake, I hope he's right, that Terri Schiavo really was in a persistant vegetative state, and that this is what Terri would have wanted.
posted by A. at 5:39 PM
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