Spring Break
Letters to the Editor: Schiavo debacle
Rosemary Mascia
Issue date: 5/6/05 Section: Ed-Op
- Page 1 of 1
Editor:
Terri Schiavo did not have a terminal illness ("Republicans use Schiavo case for political advancement," The Triangle, April 29, p. 15).
Her condition was similar to that of a person with a traumatic brain injury or cerebral palsy.Terri Schiavo could swallow and eat and drink by mouth if fed with a spoon and with the use of a straw, sippy cup or a 50cc push syringe for the liquids. She could enjoy the taste and satisfy her hunger and thirst just as we do.
However, just as someone with paralysis, brain injury or cerebral palsy, she required assistance. With the proper rehab techniques, which non-medical people could have easily learned and administered to her, she may have even been able to learn to feed herself. But this would not have happened at the hospice where she was illegally placed, with no doctor stating that her prognosis was terminal within six months. Feeding tubes are often used for convenience in addition to feeding by mouth.The feeding tube was not the main issue, as it was made to appear in this litigation and in the mainstream press, but the following was and still is the real issue.
Didn't Mr. Thuppil question that the judge not only ordered the feeding tube out, but also specially ordered that no one should feed Terri Schiavo, so that she would be murdered by withholding food and water?
No one, not even a faithful husband, has the legal right or should have the legal right to decide that his wife cannot be assisted to eat and drink, thereby imposing their death by dehydration and starvation.
Please rethink this logically. Not even a living will would cover the situation that arises if a person can eat and drink and swallow, but cannot lift the food to their own mouth.
Terri Schiavo did not have a terminal illness ("Republicans use Schiavo case for political advancement," The Triangle, April 29, p. 15).
Her condition was similar to that of a person with a traumatic brain injury or cerebral palsy.Terri Schiavo could swallow and eat and drink by mouth if fed with a spoon and with the use of a straw, sippy cup or a 50cc push syringe for the liquids. She could enjoy the taste and satisfy her hunger and thirst just as we do.
However, just as someone with paralysis, brain injury or cerebral palsy, she required assistance. With the proper rehab techniques, which non-medical people could have easily learned and administered to her, she may have even been able to learn to feed herself. But this would not have happened at the hospice where she was illegally placed, with no doctor stating that her prognosis was terminal within six months. Feeding tubes are often used for convenience in addition to feeding by mouth.The feeding tube was not the main issue, as it was made to appear in this litigation and in the mainstream press, but the following was and still is the real issue.
Didn't Mr. Thuppil question that the judge not only ordered the feeding tube out, but also specially ordered that no one should feed Terri Schiavo, so that she would be murdered by withholding food and water?
No one, not even a faithful husband, has the legal right or should have the legal right to decide that his wife cannot be assisted to eat and drink, thereby imposing their death by dehydration and starvation.
Please rethink this logically. Not even a living will would cover the situation that arises if a person can eat and drink and swallow, but cannot lift the food to their own mouth.
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