The Terri Schiavo Case

         On March 18, 2005 Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and she was to sentenced to starve to death. This was a horrible and wrong decision. Terri was responding the entire time, and had a general sense of what was going on around her. Her husband had no right to just kill her like that. Terri was human.

        In 1990, Terri Schiavo collapsed, and ended up in a vegetative state. Doctors have determined that she collapsed because she was bulimic, which she seems to have suffered from due to pressures from her husband. This is not the only atrocity her husband has committed. It truly appears as though her husband was trying to kill her, and in the end he did.

       Terri was still alive, and not just "technically" alive, really alive. She was aware of her surroundings, and not only was she responding to her environment, she would even cry when someone said they were leaving, proving that Terri also had emotions, which I believe are what make a person truly alive.

         Terri is still a person. I previously established that she had emotions, and emotions show a personality. A personality is the basic unit of individuality that separates us from animals. You could get into the values and other things that make up your personality, but when you think about it, all your personality is is how you react to a situation, and all you need fr that is emotions.

         Terri is not, however, the same person she was before. The incident limited her cognitive processing, so she does not have the same logic she had before. She also has new challenges she has to face, altering her  views. Terri has basically become a person with reactions based only on emotion, ad the basic knowledge she has of her condition.

         I personally believe that anyone has the right to live or die, as long as they themselves give consent for it. There should have been no qualms about keeping her alive, unless there was definite proof that she wanted to die.

      We can't really know what was in Terri Schiavo's best interests because she was incapable of actually speaking after her accident, and had left no previous record of what she wanted. Personally, I believe that ever right is worth living, including hers, but we can't be 100% sure that Terri felt the same way about her life.

     I believe that happiness is what makes life meaningful, and we know that Terri had the capability to be happy, but we can't really know if she actually was, or if that was her definition of a meaningful life. But, if I were in Terri's shoes, I would want to live.

     Normally, a spouse can tell what you want more accurately than your family can, but in Terri's case it was different because her husband was crazy. I think that everyone should be required to decide at a certain age what they would want to happen to them in a situation like this, because the only person who should be able to decide for you, is you, and the same is true for everyone.

 LINKS
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http://www.wnd.com/2005/03/29516/

http://www.nndb.com/people/435/000026357/