Asking questions is necessary to make sense of Terri Schiavo case

[DetroitDem]

I thought this column in my schools paper really put things perspective

http://www.statenews.com/op_article.phtml?pk=29236

There is so much dissension and varying ways of thinking in the world, that I am not sure if we will ever smooth out all the wrinkles and come to any kind of peaceable middle ground. Will we ever find generals not making absolutely ignorant comments about "my god is better than your god?" Will we ever be able to open up the newspaper or turn on the television and discover that all truly God-fearing individuals can live with all varieties of other religions or atheists or varieties of people in all forms of lifestyles? It truly gets depressing when one contemplates this spinning orb of ours.
One such incident hit me during fall semester in which a young woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, was being fought over by her family and her husband to see if she would remain in her current vegetative state or simply be taken along a path to death. That issue has been with us for a number of months and its resolution is none too clear.

If you walked down the street and asked every individual you met, there would be a distinct line of demarcation. Angry voices would be raised to defend keeping her alive, with an equal number demanding that her husband be allowed to remove the feeding tubes and let her die. Dignity and quality of life on one side, and the right to life and the sanctity of God's gift of life on the other.

So how does one write an opinion that doesn't fall into either of these two camps? I would like to say that I don't think one needs to. One simply needs to raise a few issues and see where the reader takes them.

[LdyGuique]

1. Christians have a strange spin on live/death

If one is going to a happier place, i.e., Heaven -- why the huge avoidance of dying?

Although, I did hear a Catholic priest on Lou Dobbs last night who said that "every last minute" was not part of Catholic doctrine -- they pull the plug

The issue with Terri is that few can equate feeding tube is equivalent to breathing tube on sustaining life as she cannot eat nor drink through mouth (although she has reflexive swallowing for saliva).

If unplugging her allowed for her to eat normally, she wouldn't be considered "vegetative."

Truth is the polls have been overwhelming supportive of allowing her to die "naturally." Most accept that her cerebrial cortex is gone and that she died long ago in the strictest sense.

The problem is that her family has slipped into a "mass psychosis" of believing that she is still talking and responding. Nothing will make them "unbelieve" this. No amount of medical data or evidence to the contrary -- as they "see" what they want to see.

It's a sad sad case, but it has illuminated the need for various "right to die" documents being drafted by many in the country as each person has wrestled with this issue and knows they need to decide and be on the record.

But, truth is, the Shindlers would continue to keep her alive even if there had been a document as they don't accept "persistent vegetative state" with cortex damage that is irreversible.