A Long Post
The entire situation surrounding Terri Schiavo and her feeding tube is rocking the nation and sending us into debate. For those of you who don't know, Terry Schiavo is a brain damaged American woman from Florida, who has suffered severe brain damage since becoming the victim of a severe heart attack. Apparently, for a while now, her husband has been trying to have the tube which keeps her alive removed, allowing her to finally rest in peace, and escape the complications of her life. Much of her family, however, does not want this tube removed, and wants Terri to keep living. On March 18, the tube was removed for the third and most likely final time. Since then, numerous appeals by Terri's family have been denied by the court, and for the time being, it looks like the tube will remain disconnected. It's a pretty sad story.
The whole case of Terri Schiavo brings up all kinds of issues, like euthenasia, legal guardianship, and such, all of which have been debated, but not quite as hotly as they're being debated right now. We talked about euthenasia last year in my Ethics class, that's why i'm writing about this now. Now, i'm not gonna talk about Democrats and Republicans and what each is arguing for and all that crap. Personally, i'm not entirely sure myself whether I believe the tube should be in or out. The issue being debated is, but shouldn't be, about whether the husband or the family has guardianship over Terri. What everybody should be asking themselves is whether they themselves believe she should die.
Obviously, without bringing religion in to the matter, the only person who has the right to decide whether someone lives or dies is that person him or herself. But when you have a situation like this, the issue becomes really complicated. At what point should it be left up to someone else to decide the fate of another person? The big question to answer here is "at what point does "life" end and "being a vegetable" begin? The current popular standard seems to be that life ends at the point at which a human being is no longer an autonomous being, and is uncabale of acting for him or herself and making decisions. There are extremists out there who believe that it is not the mind which defines life, but the body, and that as long as a body is functioning, that body is alive. But for now the standard seems to be fixed upon the state of the mind. There's also the question of even with MRIs and brainscans, can we really be absolutely sure that there's absolutely nothing going on in Terri's head?
Obviously, different people will have many different answers and solutions to this issue, as everyone has different views on religion, life and death, and all that good stuff. Like I said before, it's a touchy issue, and I'm not entirely sure myself about what I think. But I DO think that this is an important issue and something we should all be asking ourselves about, whether we've been in Ethics classes like me or not.
This post was more of an Op/Ed entry and less of a blog, and I apologize for that. If you don't like it, grow a freaking heart and read it again. I'll do a real update later.
The whole case of Terri Schiavo brings up all kinds of issues, like euthenasia, legal guardianship, and such, all of which have been debated, but not quite as hotly as they're being debated right now. We talked about euthenasia last year in my Ethics class, that's why i'm writing about this now. Now, i'm not gonna talk about Democrats and Republicans and what each is arguing for and all that crap. Personally, i'm not entirely sure myself whether I believe the tube should be in or out. The issue being debated is, but shouldn't be, about whether the husband or the family has guardianship over Terri. What everybody should be asking themselves is whether they themselves believe she should die.
Obviously, without bringing religion in to the matter, the only person who has the right to decide whether someone lives or dies is that person him or herself. But when you have a situation like this, the issue becomes really complicated. At what point should it be left up to someone else to decide the fate of another person? The big question to answer here is "at what point does "life" end and "being a vegetable" begin? The current popular standard seems to be that life ends at the point at which a human being is no longer an autonomous being, and is uncabale of acting for him or herself and making decisions. There are extremists out there who believe that it is not the mind which defines life, but the body, and that as long as a body is functioning, that body is alive. But for now the standard seems to be fixed upon the state of the mind. There's also the question of even with MRIs and brainscans, can we really be absolutely sure that there's absolutely nothing going on in Terri's head?
Obviously, different people will have many different answers and solutions to this issue, as everyone has different views on religion, life and death, and all that good stuff. Like I said before, it's a touchy issue, and I'm not entirely sure myself about what I think. But I DO think that this is an important issue and something we should all be asking ourselves about, whether we've been in Ethics classes like me or not.
This post was more of an Op/Ed entry and less of a blog, and I apologize for that. If you don't like it, grow a freaking heart and read it again. I'll do a real update later.
posted by Chris at 2:02 AM
1 Comments:
i was wrting this post before i went out drinking and was to lazy to proff read it. Oh yeah the mission was WEAK... Anyways here is the post: Well it is really not any business of mine what happens to her, but I mean what a waste of money it is to keep her alive. I mean she is brain dead, and either the family, the government, or the insurance company is left footing a ridiculous large bill for nothing. I mean if she doesn’t have the power to keep herself alive what is the point? They are not killing her by taking her feeding tube away; her inability to feed herself is what is killing her. All I can say is that if I am ever in that condition I hope some one has the good sense to put me out of my misery.
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