The Lady Who Can't Lunch

My mind has been consumed a lot recently by the Terri Schiavo case. Maybe it's because you can't go more than 20 seconds without seeing her face on the cover of every tabloid newspaper in New York with a countdown clock, a la "Terri Off The Feeding Tube for EIGHT Days!" Maybe it's because that stud Anderson Cooper won't stop talking about her and I refuse to change the channel when he's reporting the news. And maybe it's because I stumbled upon this really disturbing webpage.

And I've decided that I'm just totally grossed out by the entire thing. I would review the details of Terri's "Fight," but I'm sure that Anderson Cooper (or whichever newscaster you have a huge crush on) has hit you over the head with them. [If not, I welcome to you visit the pukefest of a website linked above.]

From the very start, I thought that I sided with the husband, Michael Schiavo, who contends that Terri had said at some point (before the slip that put her in a "persistent vegetative state") that if she was ever on assisted living, she would not want to be artificially sustained. If she did in fact say that, I doubt she was expecting her parents to still be around and willing to shoulder the burden. Now, looking like the very faces of agony, they are fighting a battle that no one in the judicial system wants them to win. In fact, the only real victory they have had was with legislation allowing the federal government to review this case, signed by President George W. Bush, a man who almost never leads by a religious right morality and stubborn sentimentality.

But the fact is they're starving Terri to death -- which is interesting considering that reports say that she was bulimic, which helped cause the heart failure that led to her brian damage in the first place. By today, this woman's body is literally eating itself; she is dehydrated, and soon, her kidneys won't be able to produce urine. Even if she can't really experience the pain, there is something very inhumane about this process. Why not just pump her with the same lethal injection that we do to criminals? It would be faster and certainly more peaceful. But that would be something altogether different, right?

I don't think so.

If Terri had a living will that explicitly stated her wishes should she become vegetative, none of this would be an issue. What this comes down to is whether or not we should exterminate people who are incapable of social contribution. We do not lead severely mentally retarded people to a shooting squad, even though many are unable to convey their feeling or articulate their needs. One of my friends jokingly said that we don't kill people who have had both arms amputated, even though like Terri Schiavo they can't feed themselves.

I suspect that Mr. Schiavo's argument is three-fold: 1.) he is defending his wife's wish to not be kept alive by tubes; 2.) he doesn't want to look like an asshole for divorcing a cucumber and handing her life over to her parents; and 3.) if he did divorce her, he probably wouldn't stand to profit very well. Maybe that's cynical and unfair, and I ABSOLUTELY don't blame the man for wanting to move on with his life. Fifteen years is a long time to grieve a wife who has died in every sense other than respiration.

The Schindlers are kidding themselves if they think Terri will make a full recovery, and I don't really think that the videos of her mumbling proves that she is saying "I don't want to die." Still, I admire the parents and siblings for believing in miracles and having so much hope. The kind of love that this family has for Terri Schiavo is enviable. But I still don't think that love is enough to urge Terri out of her PVS, nor is it enough to legally appeal to anything other than pure sentiment.

I support the courts, and I completely sympathize with the Schindler family. But please, get rid of the nauseating website that documents Terri's Fight. I've had a migrane since I discovered it, so it must be bad for your health.