Has the Schiavo case Become a Political Football?

Reader 1: A reading from the book of Genesis, chapter 2, versus 21 through 25:

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Reader 2: A reading from the gospel of Mark, chapter 10, versus 6 through 8:
But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one.

Phoenix32890 wrote:

In reality, parents often interfere, (many times to the detriment of the marriage ), but that is an emotional, and not a legal issue.

I don't think that parents interfere so often, at least not in (western) civilisations and in 20th/21th century.

Mother in law, mother in law

Mother in law, mother in law


The worst person I know

Mother in law, mother in law

She worries me so

Mother in law, mother in law

If she leaves us alone

We could have a happy home

Sent from down below

Mother in law, mother in law

Mother in law, mother in law


Satan should be her name

Mother in law, mother in law

To me they're about the same

Mother in law, mother in law

Everytime I open my mouth

Steps in trying to put me out

How could you stood so low

Mother in law, mother in law

Mother in law, mother in law


Come home with my pay

Mother in law, mother in law

She asks me what I made

Mother in law, mother in law

She thinks her advice is a contribution

If she would leave that would be the solution

Don't come back no more

Mother in law, mother in law

Mother in law, mother in law....

Foxfyre- Of course parents always love their child, and want the best for the. Try, for one moment to attempt to be objective about this. Fifteen years, no functioning cerebral cortex. There is a time when loved ones need to look realistically at a situation, and know when it is time to let go. The time, IMO, had long passed. The Schindlers refused to deal with reality, and groups with their own agenda latched on to them, for their own gain.


I question as to whether Terri was "being done a huge injustice".

If I was convinced that my daughter would suffer for weeks being dehydrated to death as the Schindlers were convinced that Terri would--we cannot say they lied about that. . .

For those who are interested in traditional weddings, check this out. I have heard words to this effect many times, and in many diverse religious settings.

Quote:

Reader 1: A reading from the book of Genesis, chapter 2, versus 21 through 25:

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Reader 2: A reading from the gospel of Mark, chapter 10, versus 6 through 8:
But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one.

In light of this, don't you smell a "bit" of hypocrisy in the actions of the groups who funded the Schindlers?

http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/ulcm/wed03.html

And I think it wrong and unconscionable and visciously cruel to dehydrate any living creature, much less a defenseless human being, to death and cannot fault organizations who take that same view.

The advance of technology has come much farther and faster than the study of ethics. We really need to grapple with this problem, lest there be more Terri Schiavos.

DyingWell.org

Articles and Interviews

Patient Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration:
Walking the Ever-Finer Line
American Journal Hospice & Palliative Care, pp. 8-13, March/April 1995.
Ira R. Byock, M.D.

In the midst of an increasingly heated debate over physician-assisted suicide (PAS) another option available to patients who are determined to end their lives is receiving serious attention -- the conscious refusal of nutrition and hydration. Patient refusal of nutrition and hydration (PRNH) is hardly new, indeed, virtually all hospice clinicians remember people who came to a point in their illness when they could be described as having "lost their will to live" and who recognized that continued eating and drinking was having an undesired, life-prolonging effect. In the hospice context, death that follows the decision to refrain from food or drink is not usually considered a suicide, however, by choosing to do so these patients were conscious that their death would likely be hastened.

The general impression among hospice clinicians that starvation and dehydration do not contribute to suffering among the dying and might actually contribute to a comfortable passage from life. In contrast the general impression among the public and non-hospice medical professionals is that starvation and dehydration are terrible ways to die. Scientific support for either viewpoint has been scanty, yet modern medical practice has reflected an aversion to allowing a person to "starve to death."

Indeed, during the era in which most hospice providers have trained and practiced, a patient unable to eat has been routinely treated with a feeding tube; the option of declining such intervention never having been offered or fully considered. The symbolic importance of offering food and fluids is well-recognized. While it has been utilized by people throughout human history, in public discussion and debates regarding physician-assisted suicide, hospice providers have wisely avoided suggesting PRNH as an alternative. There has been concern that in the political arena such a suggestion might appear as a self-serving way to deny hospice providers' "ultimate responsibility" to the suffering patient.

But the situation may now be changing. Several recent articles are serving to dispel fears of suffering and are making it more acceptable to speak more openly about this inherent ability of patients to influence the timing of their demise. Late in 1993 an article entitled, Patient Refusal of Hydration an Nutrition: An Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide or Voluntary Active Euthanasia, by Bernat, et. al. in the Archives of Internal Medicine reviewed the salient clinical literature and discussed the ethical implications of this option.[Bernat] The authors include PRNH within the ethical category of "voluntary passive euthanasia" since it involves not only the refusal of oral food and fluid but the associated refusal of non-oral (enteral or parenteral) alimentation and hydration. They assert that the critical moral and legal distinction to be made regarding a life-ending decision is not whether it involves an act of commission or omission on the part of the physician, but whether or not it constitutes the refusal of a medical therapy by a competent patient. Patient refusal of nutrition and hydration meets this criteria and, thus, can be considered among the commonly accepted practices of patient-initiated refusal (or withdrawal) of mechanical ventilation, renal dialysis, or antibiotic use.

A more extensive review of the scientific literature relevant to starvation and dehydration appears in an article by Sullivan entitled, Accepting Death without Artificial Nutrition or Hydration.[Sullivan] Published studies of healthy volunteers report that total fasting causes hunger for less than 24 hours. Ketonemia occurs and is associated with relief of hunger and an accompanying mild euphoria. When ketonemia is prevented by small feedings hunger persists, explaining the obsession with food commonly observed during semi-starvation occurring in times of famine or war. Animal studies also suggest that ketonemia may have a mild systemic analgesic effect. Experimentally induced dehydration in normal volunteers may report thirst, yet this sensation is consistently relieved by ad lib sips of fluid in cumulative volumes insufficient to restore physiologic fluid balance. One study of healthy subjects suggests there is a decrease in the severity of experienced thirst associated with older age.

Recently, two important clinical studies have been published which investigate the effects of fasting and dehydration in the patient population relevant to hospice. Burge surveyed patients at two inpatient palliative care units in Canada. Visual analog scales (100-mm) were used to assess seven symptoms: thirst, dry mouth, bad taste, nausea, pleasure in drinking, fatigue and pain. [Burge] Reported symptoms were studied in relation to potential confounding variables. Thirst was considered to be the principal outcome of interest. The mean symptom rating for thirst was 53.8 mm. In multiple linear regressions no statistically significant association between thirst and fluid intake, serum sodium, urea or osmolality was found. The presence of oral disease yielded the most significant association between thirst and examined variables.

In the October 26 issue of JAMA, McCann, et. al. report a prospective study of patients in a ten-bed "comfort care unit" located within a long-term care facility. [McCann] The physical care described closely resembles benchmark hospice care. "Food was offered and if necessary fed to patients but was never forced. All patients received meticulous mouth care that included combinations of cleaning, various swabs, ice chips, hard candy, and lubricants. Narcotics were used for most of the patients to treat symptoms of pain and shortness of breath when present. The dose of narcotics was titrated to provide pain relief while avoiding sedation. When the window of providing pain relief and causing sedation was small, the patients' wishes were weighed regarding the discomfort of pain vs. the discomfort of sedation in determining subsequent doses and intervals of narcotic administration."

Of 32 patients assessed by this group during a 12 month period, 63% denied hunger entirely, while 34% reported hunger during only the initial part (first quarter) of their course in the unit. Thirst or dry mouth was reported by 66% of patients; 28% transiently and 38% throughout the terminal phase of their illness. Thirty-four percent denied either symptom. The authors found that in all patients reporting either hunger or thirst, these symptoms were consistently and completely relieved by oral care or the ingestion of small amounts of food and fluid. While patients could eat or drink ad lib, the amount of food or fluid ingested -- and documented to relieve associated symptoms -- was consistently less than that required to correct dehydration or to meet obligate fluid and energy requirements.

Perhaps the most persuasive of recent articles is that entitled, A Conversation with My Mother.[Eddy] It is a narrative written by Dr. David Eddy regarding the progressive illness and dying of his mother. Initially published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it was subsequently reprinted in the New York Times, eliciting substantial discussion and notably favorable public response. Mrs. Eddy was suffering from progressive debilitation, chronic depression, anemia, recent surgery and recurrent rectal prolapse. She expressed a desire to die and, in the course of relentless decline, asked her son for help. Dr. Eddy sought to provide his mother with the means to end her life peacefully. However, prior to obtaining a lethal prescription, she developed pneumonia and was hospitalized. Antibiotics were begun (we are not told why), but quickly withdrawn at the patient's request. When she began to improve despite the lack of life-prolonging intervention, Mrs. Eddy asked her son about the option of refusing food and fluids. (It was her idea.) He assured her that without nutrition and, especially without adequate fluid, the end would come quickly. She was elated and, following the celebration of her 85th birthday and with the support of her primary physician, she stopped eating and drinking. (Her last morsel was chocolate.) She died, peacefully, six days later. The description of her last few days is compelling. "Over the next four days, my mother greeted her visitors with the first smiles she had shown for months. She energetically reminisced about the great times she had had and about things she was proud of... She also found a calming self-acceptance in describing things of which she was not proud. She slept between visits but woke up brightly whenever we touched her to share more memories and say a few more things she wanted us to know. On the fifth day it was more difficult to wake her. When we would take her hand she would open her eyes and smile, but she was too drowsy and weak to talk very much. On the sixth day, we could not wake her. Her face was relaxed in her natural smile, she was breathing unevenly, but peacefully. We held her hands for another two hours, until she died."

Quote:

The advance of technology has come much farther and faster than the study of ethics. We really need to grapple with this problem, lest there be more Terri Schiavos.

Phoenix, this reeks of "civil discourse" directed towards facing head-on the problems of modern society, you probably don't really want to go there, too many people are content with keeping the lid on that box of worms while focusing on the dramatic over the substantive.