Was the decision made by Terri Schiavo’s husband to remove his wife’s feeding tube and let her die a slow death by starvation a decision made out of love and respect for his brain damaged wife’s desire to die with dignity?
I would have to say no because it took him 15 years and not two or even three years to announce to her family and to the courts that his wife expressed to him that she would rather die than live in a permanently vegetative state.
While no one would choose to live a life confined to a bed and having to be fed through a feeding tube, I see his choice to end her life and deprive her of the nutrients she needed to continue living not as the actions of a heroic, loving and supportive husband, but one based on his own personal motives and desires.
In my opinion he was not in the right frame of mind to make such an important decision for his wife because his mind was clouded with thoughts of the new woman in his live and the children that they had together. He conveniently remembered a conversation that he claims he had with Terri prior to her accident and used it as a legal way out of a relationship that was keeping him from marrying his live-in girlfriend and moving forward with the life he felt he deserved. He was putting his own personal needs ahead of caring for his brain-damaged wife.
Going back to this conversation that he remembered having with his wife, I have to question whether or not he was remembering the actual details of the conversation as told to him by his wife prior to the accident or did he invent certain details that were not part of their conversation because he is telling himself that is how the conversation took place and that he would be doing his wife an injustice if he did not act upon her wishes.
In the end I believe that Terri’s husband deprived her of a peaceful death and in turn did not allow her to die with dignity but rather destined her to die a slow painful death as a result of starvation, which is a horribly inhumane way to die. In my mind I relate the inhumane way she died from starvation as being similar to the horrible way that many Jews starved to death during the war. Was it wise to allow a man with such clouded judgment to make such a life changing decision over another person’s life? Have we not learned anything from the sufferings of many at the hands of Hitler? Are we allowing history to be repeated by killing off people that are no longer deemed useful? As hitory has shown us, Hitler killed massive amounts of people and I’m left to wonder if we could we be doing the exact same thing by killing one person at a time over a longer period of time?
Good thoughts there. My question would be did he do all he could & find other doctors to help try different treatment on his wife? I’m sure he was very upset for a number of year & took a long time to finally be able to move on with another woman. I agree that death by starvation seems a little much, but I know i wouldn’t want to be stuck in a bed either for 15 years if I were brain dead. Although I have heard of people that wake up from comas after 15-20 years. If someone had given up on them they might not be able to live their life now.