Musings 19--For all our sakes...let her die.

I have been following the Terri Schiavo thing for about a year now. It seems to me that she is past the point of helping and if her husband, who is her guardian, wants to pull the feeding tube then he should be allowed to do it. This case is nothing new. Everyday other families, husbands, wives, children, etc. are making the same decision. Why does Teri Schiavo garner the headlines and my aunt, who died recently, did not? Easy answer...cable television.

My aunt was 93 years old and she went into deep sleep, you might say coma, and her caregivers let her slip away. My father had signed the form to not allow her to hang on after the body decided to shutdown. Terri Schiavo is the same.

The body realizes that there are things that cannot be healed. When this happens, the body starts shutting down. My aunt, before she went into the coma, told me the last time I talked to her that she just did not want to eat because the thought of it made her sick. Her body was starting to turn off. Without the feeding tube that has keep Terri Schiavo alive, she would have died years ago.

For fifteen years she has not had quality of life. For fifteen years she has been in a vegetated state. Her cereberal cortex has probably liquified long ago. She isn't coming back, and she is not going to get better. Her parents are trying to hang on. Her husband has been blasted to hell and back by the neo-cons and the talking heads of cable tv. He has more guts than I would have had. I'd have probably allowed the parents to take over and got on with my life.

My wife, Barbara, and I have debated this quite a bit. She says that she understands Mr. Schiavo trying to get on with his life by finding another companion. The religious right have condemned him to hell. Well, he's already been in hell for 15 years. He must have really loved her to put himself through this. I guess it goes back to the premise of true love. You know the one I mean...they write songs about it. Do you love someone enought to let them go? That is the ultimate test. Only the selfish hang on forever.

On a lighter note:

Spring is here and the days are getting longer. I'm hoping we do not get the one last snowstorm that we have gotten the last few years. I'm ready for hummingbirds and chirping frogs. Besides, the old horse needs the sun.