Comments on: "Not Dead Yet" http://www.peacebang.com/2005/03/26/not-dead-yet/ The manic mind of the minister -- Auntie Mame Meets Cotton Mather Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:18:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Kellie http://www.peacebang.com/2005/03/26/not-dead-yet/#comment-244 Kellie Wed, 30 Mar 2005 15:32:02 +0000 http://www.peacebang.com/2005/03/26/not-dead-yet/#comment-244 I wholeheartedly agree. My mother has worked as a hopsice RN for almost a decade, and from the stories I hear from her, and what we went through as her mother died from cancer, treatment itself can in many cases be cruel. In my grandmother's case, she went through many courses of chemotherapy to kill the cancer that was slowly invading her body, robbing her her of her strength and eventually comitting her to a hospital bed where she died. I fail to understand how this is humane. I can sympathize with the impulse to keep a loved one alive as long as possible, but I also believe in quality of life, the major tenet of hosipce and pallitive care. I personally would prefer to have my pain eased by medicine and slip away with some dignity, rather than continue to "live" physically imprisoned by my own body because Congress renders a dying individual's wishes irrelevant and instead chooses to insert their own interpretations of "life". <br/>What's more, I feel that no one has considered the physical aspects of death in respect to the Schiavo case: When one's body is attempting to die, it has no further need for nourishment and hydration. From my mother's experience with hospice patients, in their last days and hours, they lose their appetites and refuse food and drink, that is if they were able to naturally. If this is true in Mrs. Schiavo's case, her body has been attempting to die for 15 years, and has been thwarted by modern "miracle" medicine. I wholeheartedly agree. My mother has worked as a hopsice RN for almost a decade, and from the stories I hear from her, and what we went through as her mother died from cancer, treatment itself can in many cases be cruel. In my grandmother’s case, she went through many courses of chemotherapy to kill the cancer that was slowly invading her body, robbing her her of her strength and eventually comitting her to a hospital bed where she died. I fail to understand how this is humane. I can sympathize with the impulse to keep a loved one alive as long as possible, but I also believe in quality of life, the major tenet of hosipce and pallitive care. I personally would prefer to have my pain eased by medicine and slip away with some dignity, rather than continue to “live” physically imprisoned by my own body because Congress renders a dying individual’s wishes irrelevant and instead chooses to insert their own interpretations of “life”.
What’s more, I feel that no one has considered the physical aspects of death in respect to the Schiavo case: When one’s body is attempting to die, it has no further need for nourishment and hydration. From my mother’s experience with hospice patients, in their last days and hours, they lose their appetites and refuse food and drink, that is if they were able to naturally. If this is true in Mrs. Schiavo’s case, her body has been attempting to die for 15 years, and has been thwarted by modern “miracle” medicine.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.peacebang.com/2005/03/26/not-dead-yet/#comment-243 Anonymous Sun, 27 Mar 2005 18:39:13 +0000 http://www.peacebang.com/2005/03/26/not-dead-yet/#comment-243 Eveyday doctors decide to take no extraordinary measures in prolonging a life. "No extraordinary measures" can be even more simple than removing a feeding tube; it could mean sending someone home to die in their own bed. When my mother starved to death from colon cancer, I was fully aware that the doctors could have kept her alive for a few more days (perhaps weeks) in the hospital. However, we all recognized that she needed to come home.<br/><br/>I quiver at the thought of congress telling my mother she must stay in the hospital and live as long as possible in her condition. Sometimes the most loving and ethical thing to do can be simply allowing a person die.<br/><br/>Imagine if we saw the Schiavo case not in terms of the disabled, but in terms of the terminally ill (her cerebral cortex is dead afterall). "Right to lifers," using the same arguments brought out in this case, could keep all sorts of people alive for a few more needless hours. Countless people with more brain function than Terry Schiavo could presently have their lives prolonged by well-meaning families who look at preserving life as a categorical imperative. Persons dying of a variety of illnesses could have their last days stretched out by wiring, prodding and force feeding, but we simply choose not to do this. We let go. Eveyday doctors decide to take no extraordinary measures in prolonging a life. “No extraordinary measures” can be even more simple than removing a feeding tube; it could mean sending someone home to die in their own bed. When my mother starved to death from colon cancer, I was fully aware that the doctors could have kept her alive for a few more days (perhaps weeks) in the hospital. However, we all recognized that she needed to come home.

I quiver at the thought of congress telling my mother she must stay in the hospital and live as long as possible in her condition. Sometimes the most loving and ethical thing to do can be simply allowing a person die.

Imagine if we saw the Schiavo case not in terms of the disabled, but in terms of the terminally ill (her cerebral cortex is dead afterall). “Right to lifers,” using the same arguments brought out in this case, could keep all sorts of people alive for a few more needless hours. Countless people with more brain function than Terry Schiavo could presently have their lives prolonged by well-meaning families who look at preserving life as a categorical imperative. Persons dying of a variety of illnesses could have their last days stretched out by wiring, prodding and force feeding, but we simply choose not to do this. We let go.

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