Other Columns by Debbie Daniel
Debbie Daniel Bio

Printer-Friendly Version

Oh, that we could all die of starvation! I've listened to Michael Schiavo explain - for the 100th time - how peaceful and painless the dying process is through starving. It would make one wish we could all die that way.

Scars are cutting deep into the fiber of our hearts as we are forced to accept the mantra, "This is what Terri wants." I'm sorry, but I'm not buying any of it. It may be painless for her, but I feel an agony of pain that I can't shake off and I don't know why. I've listened to both sides, but there's enough reasonable doubt in this case to set the worst criminal free and I'm beginning to believe the criminal is Michael Schiavo, not Terri. Maybe he should lie there with her - receiving no food or water - and feel this painless procedure as she will.

And even though I believe Terri knows exactly what's going on, she has no option but to accept her fate. She uttered the words, "I wouldn't want to live like that," after watching an emotional movie of a person on life support, and now those words will send her to her grave; no chance of a retraction. We have to accept her at her word, and though she cannot speak in audible tones, we must believe that if she could speak we would hear her say, "Let me die, let me die."

But when I look at the pictures of Terri Schiavo and the interaction with her family, those are not the words I see her saying. In fact, after watching this "real life movie" played out everyday on the TV screens across America, don't you get the feeling that if she had a chance to utter her thoughts she might want to say, "I don't want to die like this."

The only difference this time . . . she can't talk.

"I would never want to live like that" is a natural response under ordinary circumstances of everyday living. But when faced with death, we are all fighters. It is then that the whole picture changes.

When I hear of people ready to run to lawyers and have living wills drawn up, I am fearful of what emotions can do in people's lives. It's a scary thought to know that the emotion of a tragic movie and even the emotion of this tragic scenario lived before our eyes would cause us to make a directive that we may one day be forced to carry out with no chance of changing our mind.

When you write up your will, how long will you give yourself to see that there is no hope? What will you measure that by? If we were all held to the words we've spoken or written in a wave of emotion, we might find ourselves on the other side of a devastating situation with no way out.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2 3