I don't think there's any harm at all in letting someone
take care of a person in Teri's condition if they are willing, and somehow
know it's the best thing for the person in question. But the problem
is that I think a lot of people wouldn't choose to live like that if given a
choice, so whose wishes do you value more? And how can you ever be sure of
the wishes of the vegetative person?
No one really knows what the vegetative person is aware of
- maybe they're aware of absolutely nothing and dying would be no different in
their experience than being kept alive in their state. Maybe they're aware
of some things on some levels, but have no real interior mental life as we'd
usually conceive of it - their experience is just neutral with no value to them
either way. Maybe they do have some sort of interior mental life, but it's
miserable for them, and they would rather not live in their state. Maybe
they have some sort of interior mental life, and it's pleasant and worth being
in - like some kind of out of body experience where you are still very much
"yourself" in spirit, even though you are not able to think or communicate in
any concrete way.
It all just confuses me so much, because ultimately you
want to respect the wishes of the person in question, but you may not ever know
their wishes for sure.
I think that if I had a relative in that state, I'd want to
care for them and would take comfort in just knowing that they were alive and
getting to see them, but how could you ever separate out your emotions and know
if that was the best thing for them, or just the best and most comforting thing
for yourself, to not have to say goodbye?
The more I think about the "issue" the more mixed my
feelings become. I don't know how anyone can form a strong opinion either
way. I think it requires making a huge leap of faith in either direction,
assuming that life is or isn't worth living in a condition that you don't have
firsthand knowledge of.
From: Jim Lubin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 12:41 PM
To: Stacy Harim; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] Shedding light on terri's situation
I had a nurse who had a son who was severely disabled from birth. The doctors did not expect him live long. He is now in his early 20s. He is ventilator dependent and tube feed. He does not communicate in any real way but he does respond to his family. He even went to school when he was younger. His family made a lot of sacrifices to keep him home and to take care of him. When I met him I could not tell at all if he was aware of what was going on around him. His mother and sister thought so.
I would not chose to live like that. I'm not about to decide another person's quality of life based on my personal criteria. If someone is willing to care for a person in that condition what is the harm in letting them?
Jim
At 11:05 PM 3/23/2005, Stacy Harim wrote:
You respond to people and you KNOW you are eating. She has no idea what is going on.
Stacy
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: Jim Lubin
- You can put food and water before me and I would die if no one was there to feed me. So how does a person like me fit into your analogy?
- At 05:11 PM 3/23/2005, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
- A dog feeds and drinks themselves-- we just SUPPLY the food. In terri's case you can put food and water before her and she would still die-----Some human must force a tube into her bowels then constantly feed the tube with food and water just to keep her living-----so completely different issue here.
- Dan
- From: Jim Lubin
