Maybe I Just Don't Get It

I'm asked my opinion on a variety of subjects. Perhaps it is because I put my views in the newspaper every week or because I am in the public eye quite frequently. Terri Schiavo is the topic of the moment. What do you think about her situation? Shouldn't they just let her die? I'd like to use my aunt as an example. Charlotte was in her mid fifties when she developed Alzheimer's disease. Within less than 2 years she required full time care in a nursing facility. She was only 63 years old when she died of complications from Alzheimer's. At what point should the family and the doctors decided that she should die of thirst and starvation? She was no longer able to feed herself. She needed assistance in all of her daily functions, including getting something to drink, food, wiping herself and eventually being reminded to go to the bathroom. So what is the difference between my Aunt Charlotte and Terri Schiavo? Both were/are essentially non-functioning in the sense of brain activity. Both needed/need full time assistance. Both had/have family members that wanted them to live. One didn't have the support of the legislative branch coming to her aid. One didn't have the media attention. One could still talk, though with no significant intellectual content, at least until shortly before she died. Where do the "mercy killings" end? If Terri Schiavo could talk, we wouldn't be having this discussion. We assume that a person is alive if they can communicate with us in the form that we are accustomed to. Is there a reasonable answer to this dilemma? Her husband, who has collected a couple million dollars for her rehabilitation, of which there has been none noted to date, says let her die. Of course, he'll be no worse off for her death, with the exception that he loses his wife, but at this point that is what he wants. The parents will lose their daughter, which is what they don't want. In essence the only one who has anything to gain by her death is her husband. I could no more have looked my aunt in the eye, even though she would have had no clue who I was, and said let her die from starvation and thirst, than the parents of Terri Schiavo seem to be able to do. I couldn't look at my daughter, who is disabled, and say, "Sorry, honey, time for you to fend for yourself. Your life is not worth living." Michael Schiavo seems to have no problem with that, at least when he appears on television pleading his case to let his wife be murdered through means of neglect. I'm glad that I don't have to make that decision. It would be difficult to live with myself for choosing death over life. For an excellent presentation by a disability-rights lawyer, see the posting by Harriett McBryde Johnson.