StillBlueLake said:I'm married and if I was incapacitated for over a decade, I'd sure want my husband to move on and find happiness with someone else.
I think it's pretty sick the way the right wingers portray Michael as some sort of monster. I'm sure he misses her too.
I'm sorry but you simply have the science wrong. The link above talks about how this sort of death in painless for a patient in a PVS. Terri is NOT conscious. She has sleep/wake patterns, but she is not conscious in terms of being able to think, feel or interact with the environment. The cerebral cortex, which is the part of the brain that controls feelings, memory etc, has been replaced in Terri by spinal fluid. She is still "alive" because she has a brain stem, which controls primitive functions.
Ladskater said:It comes down to quality of life. How can someone who is brain dead, have anything even close to quality? Really she is gone already. Her husband, wants to do the humane thing and let her rest in peace. He should be given the right to make the decision.
megsk8z said:This is a really close topic to me right now because last week my mother went in for an operation on her carotid artery and due to complications she had several strokes and wound up in pretty much the same state Terry is in. Thank goodness I had the healthcare power of attorney and her requests in writing. After the hospital did a brain scan that showed there was "something" going on in her brain but not enough to make her life a "real" life in her eyes, I had them take the ventilator and the respirator off and give her something for pain. She died within a minute or two and although it was incredibly hard on me, I know it was what my mother would want. I miss her awfully, horribly, terribly and dreadfully, but I know it was what she wanted.
And not that this has anything to do with the Terry Schiavo case, but the night my mother died we were driving around and there was a snowy owl perched on a telephone pole. She looked at me and flew off and we don't get too many snowy owls around here. THanks for letting me weigh in with my .02.
ranjake said:By the way, I'm a nurse...but this is a very complex situation. No, she isn't technically brain dead, but her Cerebral Cortex is. The Cerebral Cortex can not regenerate, and so rehabilitation to any conscious function is really impossible. In a way, I feel it is really a kindness to let her go to God, and very selfish to keep her here as she is. And yet as a Mom, I think I can understand her parents' desire to hold on desperately to her in any shape or form. I was surprised to learn that Bush signed legislation as Governor of Texas allowing Hospitals to shut off life support of patients who had no ability to pay, but whose families wanted life support to continue. Can we say...hypocrite?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!