Ok, once upon a time there was this guy name Hitler, and his doctors thought that they knew the definition of "quality of life" . It has been decided by Terry Schiavo's medico's that her "quality of life" is such that , she should be starved to death to bring an end to her miserable existence. Well folks not to sound like chicken little, but Hitler began his medical programs just like this. First it was extermination of violent prisoners, then it moved on what was considered by Hitler to be undesirables such as:
Elderly, disabled, mentally retarded, homosexual, and last but not least Jews.
This whole situation is a hornets nest that allows doctors, hmo's, hospital's and other "bottom liner's" to start making more and more decisions on who lives and who dies. It's really scary that the "quality of life" definition changes almost daily, what is considered good "quality of life" one day is considered poor " quality of life the next". I think the ethics went out the window when the doctors decided to starve the woman to death. Dehydration is no better, they might as well shoot her, what! too messy a death? Well lets just call a spade a spade, in the Hippocratic oath (it should be called Hypocritic oath in this case) physicians vow to first do no harm. Well if you feel that it is harmful to the patient to suffer, ending the suffering by causing what could be three weeks or 7 days of pain (whether starve or dry out)and more suffering, is clearly nonsensical according to the oath, Terry Schiavo is the poster child for what the trend in our nation will become. Will the nursing home administrators start pulling feeding tubes of the clients that can't pay through private insurance? Citing "quality of life" as the issue. I tell you what either way the case is deadly and I feel that if her life is precious to her family and they are willing to take care of her, and she is responding to family like they say, then I say, screw the husband (who ended up with another family anyway) and take her home and feed her. The next time I see or have to pick up a drunk on the street, I certainly am not going to smother him in the back of the ambulance because of his poor quality of life. As long as he's got life in him, let the good Lord decide.