The Schiavo case has left a horrid taste in my mouth from the beginning. The courts in Florida have essentially given themselves the legal authority to decide life or death by determining whether or not Terri Schiavo wished to live or die. That sort of determination should never been made in a court of law, and the fact that Schiavo’s husband stands to make quite a bit of money when his wife dies should instantly cast doubt on his true intentions.
What truly disgusts me is not only is the state going to allow the murder of Terri Schaivo, they are going to murder her by starvation and dehydration. We don’t know how cognizent Terri Schiavo is of her situation, but even if there’s rudimentary feeling that must be the most hellish way to go possible. The government would never execute a criminal in this way. We wouldn’t even allow a dog to die in such a horrifying manner. Yet here we are letting a woman starve to death while Michael Schiavo and his slimebag attorney bloviate about the “right to die.”
I’m with Spoons on this one. If Schiavo must die, the way in which she’s being offed is absolutely disgusting. If Michael Schaivo wants his wife dead, let him put a bullet in her skull and end this pointless suffering. Let the judges who issued this order give her a lethal injection. If we’re going to let Terri Schiavo be killed, then let’s kill her and end the artiface of “easing her suffering.” Terri Schaivo isn’t on life support. She can breathe on her own. Instead she’s going to starve to death.
Something like that clearly violates the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. The state is torturing Terri Schiavo to death. This sort of thing is worse than what al-Qaeda would do — at least a beheading would be quicker.
Any society that can resort to this kind of savagery is a society that has lost the barest respect for human life.
I’m conflicted about this case. You are correct that if Schiavo has any feeling left at all, death by starvation seems incomprehensibly cruel. But would it be crueler than another 20 years of living as a vegetable? That’s up to the individual to decide. Personally, I’d rather go through two weeks of starvation and dehydration than passing year after year, decade after decade, in an incapacitated state. A recent poll indicated that people agree with me by an 87-8 margin, indicating that if they were in Schiavo’s condition, they’d want the plug pulled.
I guess this is a lesson to all of us to make a living will indicating our intentions at the next opportunity. I don’t think this is a matter that the state should decide either way, other than to grant the wishes of the individual. Given that Schiavo (and probably countless other patients consigned to a long-term coma or other conditions) didn’t document her intentions, a legal mess like this becomes inevitable.
I’ve been saying this all along.
Give the husband a revolver with 3 bullets set to be the last three fired.
Let him in the room for 5 minutes.
What happens in the room, stays in the room.
Whatever is left in the room after 5 minutes, the parents get to keep.
87-8 huh? I wounder how much that figure would change when they are on deaths door.
Indeed. Had Schaivo had a living will clearly stating her intentions, none of this would have happened.
I fully agree with you. I would respect Michael Schiavo about a million times more if he’d just shoot her. Starving her to death just seems to barbaric.
I find your statement about Mr. Schaivo inheriting money to be a bit ludicrous. Yes there is some $50, 000.00 he will inherit when Mrs. Scahivo passes away but most of that money originally $1,000,000.00 has gone to Mrs. Schaivo’s medical care and legal fees Mr. Schaivo has had to pay to abide by his wife’s wishes. If he didn’t care about her he would have divorced her and given her care to her parents, but he didn’t. If he wanted her dead he never would have insisted for the first few years after her heart attack to that doctors perform any test they could to find a cure to her brain damage and when Mr. Schaivo was told by doctors his wife would never again be able to live a normal life (the ability to feed herself or even be fed by mouth by another human) that is when he decided to abide by her wishes and remove the feeding tube. No, I am not a vicious individual who would like to see someone starve to death, but science is what is keeping Mrs. Schaivo alive not nature. If we did not have the science to feed her by a tube she would have died years ago. Yes I agree she can breathe on her own, but the fact that she is unable to feed herself because she’s in a vegatative state speaks volumes about God’s intentions. Would you honestly say she knows what’s going on? She truly has left already in that the Terri everyone loves died the day she had her heart attack . As for being kept alive artificially? I can honestly say if God decides it is my time to go then so be it. We cannot turn our backs on the inevitable. You are born and you will die. It is our faith in God that there is something better waiting for us on the other side that makes our lives here on earth worth while.
It is not murder to take out a feeding tube. It is murder to then deprive the person of sustenance, i.e. systematically starve them to death. Why couldn’t the courts have ordered that the tube removed, but allow feeding? If she then died because she couldn’t swallow, that would be natural causes. But to order the execution of an individual who has broken no law, and is completely innocent and defenseless, is barbaric. Next on the agenda: “Starvation is cruel and unusual punishment. We will then give a lethal injection to euthanize people who are no longer wanted or of value to society.” Do we really want this? do you want this when you are elderly and your kids can’t wait for you to die naturally to get their hands on the money?
Murder is killing someone with intent without thier interests at heart. I blieve they had Terri’s interests at heart.
Well I myself have gone two days without eating or drinking anything, and so far have yet to experience any pain. I have read countless accounts of people starving themselves and reporting nothing but euphoria.
And I believe that people should be killed if they want to. I want to be killed and I am going to regardless of what anyone says.