Should we put the fate of someone’s life in our own hands or god’s hand? i guess this argument will go no end in Terri Schiavo case.
Terri Schiavo was diagonosed in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) by 6 different court-appointed physicians after suffering from a severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen while waiting for the paramedic to arrive. She was having a cardiac arrest due to bulimia which she drank liquid only to maintain her weight .
On March 18, 2005, her gastric feeding tube has been removed on court order to mark an end to the endless suffering of Terri. “as requested by Terri not wanting to be kept artificially”insisted by her husband, Michael Schiavo. She’s expected to leave us within March 27 till Apr 1. Her parents are still filing a court appeal to reinsert the gastric feeding tube back to her daughter.
however, according to MedPagetoday, Terri Schiavo will not feel any pain anymore stated in this article.
Pain, as well as suffering, requires consciousness, which is lacking in a person in a persistent vegetative state, says Dr. De Georgia. “Certainly these patients don’t suffer,” he adds. “Suffering is really that whole emotional aspect of pain: fear, anxiety, panic surrounding pain. You have to have consciousness to experience these emotions. So just as a person in a persistent vegetative state can’t experience pain because of a lack of consciousness, they also don’t suffer.”
since no suffering is involved, i guess what matters now is her will to live on. Today is the 13th day she strive to live without her tube. perhaps the court couldn’t know that whether Terri still have the will to live on anymore or not on the day they removed her tube. but it’s already 13 days, can’t they figure it out that she’s still struggling to live on her life, or even maybe to recover? i mean if she has lost her will to live (as in she doesn’t want to be kept artificially) i guess she would b gone by now. but she’s still alive.
i’ve heard a story on will power sometime ago. a men was being captured as the POW. he was being blindfolded and was threatened by those soldier that he will be cut at his wrist using a sharp knife and his blood will dripped drop by drop until he dies. however, they didn’t do anything at all to him other than using a sharp tools to scratch on his wrist and hang a bag of water around his wrist. the waterbag dripped… drop by drop. the man thought that it was his blood that is dripping. at someday, he died because he thought that it is about time for him to die since his blood has dripped off. he lost the will to live so he died thinkin that he has dried of blood.
you can see how powerful is someone’s will to live. i guess all we could do is to pray hard that Terri could live through even after 1st of april and hopefully this is enough to prove that she wants to live on her life and no one has the right to take her life in his or her hand. hopefully, God will let her live on her will or if things are not going the way it should be, then please take her with Him to a better place. i’m a buddhist. So as the buddhist saying goes, if a person died early, it marks the end of his cycle for this life and he could move on to his next life or either go to a place where there will be no suffer, no pain, no happy, no sadness, no love, no hate,no anything, no nothing…… and we shall not be sad, we should be happy for him instead.
