Terri Schiavo

"Man's brain seemed to fix itself"

The paragraph below is from the article that is linked above:

“Wallis' sudden recovery happened three years ago at a rehabilitation center in Mountain View, Ark., but doctors said the same cannot be hoped for people in a persistent vegetative state, such as Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died last year after a fierce right-to-die court battle. Nor do doctors know how to make others with less serious damage, like Wallis, recover.”

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In the news article linked above, mention is made of Terri Schiavo, and it’s how she’s mentioned that I have issue with. First off, Terri didn’t just “die”, she was starved to death! However, this article makes no mention of that very important fact, even though it is an important point to bring up in this issue of people in a “persistent vegetative state.” The way this was presented above is offensive, and I’ll give an example why.

Suppose you oppose the death penalty (which I do), and a man was executed by the electric chair after being on death row for over 10 years. Someone who is passionate in their opposition to the death penalty will want a news report of the execution to give details so as to highlight the brutality of the death penalty. But what if, instead, the news report mentioned the execution in this way?

“Jim Smith, after spending 10 years on death row, died this morning.”

See how much is missing here?

Jim Smith didn’t just “die”, he was executed! A lethal dose of electricity was sent through his body! His body jumped and jerked as sparks flew out of his body! This is what death by the electric chair does! It’s gruesome! It’s why it isn’t used anymore!

So getting back to Terri Schiavo, she didn’t just “die”, she was made to starve to death over a two week period. You know what happens to the human body when it is starving? Most likely, you don’t. That’s because we in the U.S.A. are well fed. TOO well fed, according to some news articles. But we do know enough that it isn’t pretty.

According to a Wikipedia article of this issue, here’s some effects of starvation:

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Physical

• Decreased resting metabolic rate (RMR)
• Drop in sex hormones
• Decreased sexual interest
• Amenorrhea (no menses)
• Lanugo (growth of insulating hair)
• Bone loss
• Constipation and gastrointestinal upset
• Sleep disorder
• Muscle weakness
• Hypothermia
• Loss of lean body mass
• Changes in brain chemistry regulating appetite and food cravings

Behavioral

• Preoccupation with food - collecting recipes
• Unusual eating habits
• Increased consumption of fluids
• Increased use of spices
• Loss of the body's natural mechanisms for regulating hunger and fullness
• Less pickiness about tastes
• Binge eating

Cognitive

• Decreased concentration
• Poor judgment
• Apathy

Emotional and social

• Depression
• Anxiety
• [Sandy behavior]
• Lability (constantly changing moods)
• Psychotic episodes
• Personality changes
• Social withdrawal

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In light of this knowledge, is starving Terri Schiavo to death made better –that is, is it made more dignified and acceptable—by the fact that she couldn’t tell us that she was in great pain from being starved to death? I hope you can now see how it is an injustice to simply say “the Florida woman who died last year”. The impacts and effects of “the right to die” needs to always be brought up and addressed when this topic comes up, for it is still an issue that is still being debated to this day.

The state-sanctioned starvation death of Terri Schiavo is even more appalling than when the state executes criminals. While I oppose the death penalty, at least in theory the criminal has had his day in court –but in the case of Terri Schiavo, her only “crime” was an inconvenient existence.

I think that the above article should have mentioned Terri Schiavo in this way:

“Wallis' sudden recovery happened three years ago at a rehabilitation center in Mountain View, Ark., but doctors said the same cannot be hoped for people in a persistent vegetative state, such as Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died from starvation last year after a fierce right-to-die court battle. Nor do doctors know how to make others with less serious damage, like Wallis, recover.”

While I would say even more were I the writer of that article, at least my editing above acknowledges HOW she died (which, again, is important to the issue of “the right to die”), rather than just mentioning that she died.