Thursday, March 31, 2005

Living like Terri

Many people seem to be saying "I'd rather die than live like Terri Schiavo was living." I don't accept that.

First, it's said too casually. Have you really thought about this? Prayed about it? Spent any quality time meditating about it? If the time you've spent pondering this issue is measured in single digits of minutes, just say "I don't know. Haven't thought about it enough."

Second, you don't know what you're talking about. Live like what? No "artificial" mechanisms? My cousin Jim has kidney failure and is on dialysis. Without that procedure, he dies. If he had a living will that said don't prolong life using artificial mechanisms, does that mean his wife has the right to have him executed like Terri? Several people said Terri might likely have been taught to swallow if anyone had attempted to teach her. If she could eat and drink without a tube, she'd still be alive. But her "quality of life" would be the same. So you want to die if your cognitive abilities are poor even if your physiological health is good (like Terri's was)? You want to die if on a resperator but not if only on a feeding tube (like the Pope is right now)? What about a pace maker? That's certainly an "artificial" mechanism for pacing the heart. Would you rather die than get one of those? I don't think many have thought this stuff through.

Third, I suspect you're just wrong. From the anecdotal info I've seen, people in these difficult states DO want to live. When Christopher Reeve was paralyzed (became a vegetable as the uninformed and insensitive say), his mother thought he should be terminated. What's the point in living like that? Fortunately for him, his wife didn't agree. As we all know, he went on to publish books, testify before Congress and have a fuller life in his wheelchair than most able bodied people have.

No, I think the folks that say life has no value without an able body simply think life has no value. Because if it does, it's certainly not about smoothly functioning physiology.

1 Comments:

Blogger Phers said...

An interesting analysis. How much time have we really thought about it? I surely haven't thought about it beyond single digit minutes.

"No, I think the folks that say life has no value without an able body simply think life has no value. Because if it does, it's certainly not about smoothly functioning physiology."

What I relate to when ppl say they wouldn't want to live like that, is the desire to avoid discomfort, pain, depression more than valuing life. For example, would you want to live on if everyday you were tortured by Saddam's thugs? I'd prefer they finished me off than wake up to a new excruciating pain everyday.

However, in Christ I see a new value in suffering, perseverance, and life itself. But left to the flesh, which is self-serving and indulgent, a life without pleasure is a life not worth living.

1:02 AM  

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