And another article about Terri...

[agilebrit]

PVS, my ass.

Dude, if they were going to treat a prisoner at Abu Graib like this, withholding food and water, everyone would be up in arms demanding the heads of anyone who would suggest such a thing. We'd be screaming about torture and "cruel and unusual punishment." I guess it's okay to do it to Terri because she can't speak for herself and because she hasn't committed any crimes. Her so-called husband's assertion that she wouldn't want to be alive in this state seems self-serving at best and criminal at worst.

And all these people saying "Oh, it's not so bad to starve/dehydrate to death! Really!" What crack are they smoking? How would you like to go out like this:

Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucus membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death. (St. Louis neurologist William Burke)

Or this:
After seven to nine days [from commencing dehydration] they begin to lose all fluids in the body, a lot of fluids in the body. And their blood pressure starts to go down. When their blood pressure goes down, their heart rate goes up. . . . Their respiration may increase and then . . . the blood is shunted to the central part of the body from the periphery of the body. So, that usually two to three days prior to death, sometimes four days, the hands and the feet become extremely cold. They become mottled. That is you look at the hands and they have a bluish appearance. And the mouth dries a great deal, and the eyes dry a great deal and other parts of the body become mottled. And that is because the blood is now so low in the system it's shunted to the heart and other visceral organs and away from the periphery of the body . . . (Minnesota neurologist Ronald Cranford--who has testified that Terri's feeding tube should be removed)

Yeah, gimme some of that. This is what they're calling "death with dignity"? Above quotes are from this site--which also has a narration of someone whose feeding tube was removed for eight days and lived. This woman was diagnosed as being in a PVS as well, but has recovered. Her story is chilling.

I love this phrase from the ABCNews website:
...whether she should be permitted to die or kept alive through the feeding tube.

"Permitted to die." Like it's a privilege we're affording her, like we're doing her a favor to "allow" her to starve and dehydrate to death. Don't do me any favors like that, k?

"Kept alive through the feeding tube." You mean, kept alive by being fed. Which is something we do for people who can't eat on their own. If they can swallow, someone spoon-feeds them. Is this "artificial"? They're not eating on their own, after all. Let's please remember that her husband has denied permission for swallowing therapy that might make the tube unnecessary.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This isn't a "right to die" case. It's a "right to live" case.