Right, all the judiciary and medical personnel associated with this decision are Nazis. As are the majority of Americans who believe the woman and her husband have the right to end intrusive and futile treatment.
I’m not convinced that this decision is being made by “the woman and her husband”. The decision is being made by her husband and her husband alone. I’m not sure anyone can say with 100% certainty that this is what Terri would want. Her parents evidently think differently (and yes I know that her husband knows here best after all they were married for + years which certainly negates all those years she spent with the parents, etc., <her current condition>) My point is Terri is unable to clarify her wishes at this time.
Nor am I convinced that the majority of Americans believe Terri’s husband has the right to make Terri’s decision for her, which is how the question is always presented.
But what we can all probably answer is what would we want done if we were in Terri’s situation. This is the "hidden" 2nd part of the question that I beleive most Americans are answering “yes” to.
Most Americans would say they want the right to refuse intrusive and futile treatment. And most would agree that if they “themselves personally” were in a PVS that they would not want a feeding tube used to prolong their lives. So this really has nothing to do with “the husbands right to decide”.
If the roles were reversed and the husband <was> the one wanting to keep Terri alive and it was the parents and the rest of Terri’s family who wanted the feeding tube removed, would we still be defending his right to make Terri’s decisions. I suspect not. We will support the side that best reflects our own personal views and desires. In other words, what we would want to happen to us if we were Terri.
The problem is, we are not Terri. Just because we can’t measure whether she is in fact “still in there”, doesn’t prove that she isn’t. All it proves is that according to today’s technology, it doesn’t appear that she has functioning thoughts and feelings. Unless we can find someone who have been in this state to discuss it with us, we really can’t know.
Perhaps the real question that needs to be asked is “if a person is in a PVS and hasn’t left written instructions, should we make the decision to remove life support (in this case a feeding tube) even if it means going against the families wishes?”
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