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.
Stacy,
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
