Other Columns by Barbara J. Stock
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George Felos, perhaps trying to ease his guilt, (though this is unlikely since one must have a conscience to feel guilt) and improve his image as a heartless ogre, went before cameras and fed the world one of the biggest lies it has ever heard. He related how "peaceful and beautiful" Terri is as she lay dying. I guess if dying of dehydration and starvation is so lovely, perhaps we should all die that way. Perhaps we should give that option to criminals on death row. We certainly should stop being concerned about the children in poor countries dying of starvation. George Felos has told us it's a great way to die!

All of the chaos surrounding Terri's impending death isn't just about Terri or her family. It is about what we as a society are going to be willing to accept in the future.

The court rulings, all in favor of the legal murder of a non-terminal human being, are laying the groundwork for the legal euthanasia of the old and physically and mentally handicapped people of all ages. We have become Nazi Germany/1933. This is a dark and dangerous path that America is moving down and what amazes and frightens me is how willingly some people are being led and what lengths are being taken to justify murder.

Let's clear one thing up right from the start. There cannot be any comparison between Terri Schiavo's case and the case of a person in the final stages of cancer or some other life-ending disease. Terri is not terminally ill; she was never terminally ill. She was illegally admitted to the hospice where she is now being killed. Her admission was illegal under Hospice protocol and Medicare guidelines because she was not terminally ill. With a simple feeding tube, she could live for decades without any health problems at all. If Terri had received the therapy that has been denied to her, she probably could eat food normally. Terri is not brain dead. She has committed no crime. Yet, because her husband convinced a few judges that Terri "would not want to live that way," she has been condemned to death with fewer rights than a mass murderer. In fact, she has no rights at all. Terri never had her own lawyer to represent her.

If Terri was truly brain dead, it would not be murder, but she is not brain dead. Every day in this country families make the painful decision to "pull the plug" on a loved one who has suffered a catastrophic injury. Their now-damaged-beyond-repair bodies are kept alive totally by machines and their brains are not functioning enough to tell them to breathe. Often, an external pacemaker is needed just to keep their hearts beating. It's only a matter of time before their bodies realize the organ-in-charge is dead. In fact, they don't swallow their own saliva, a sign of severe brain damage. These people require almost constant suctioning or they drool and aspirate their own secretions.

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