When is the time to be moral?
Once in 2001. Once in 2003. One final time in 2005.
I read with no small discomfort that the circus (on her part) was finally over. I wonder how the health care professionals in that nursing home reacted to the news that she was to be starved. Did they just mouth words of disbelief and continue with their duties? Did any of them refuse to have any part in it? Was it hell for them to comtinue their duties while they carried out Mr Michael Schiavo's wishes to have his wife starved to death? I hope it was. He who faxed a statement to news organizations Monday in which he said he had difficulty accepting a court ruling allowing him to have his wife's feeding tube removed.
I've taken care of individuals who've been rendered "vegetative" by different means. There is such a thing as a will to live, and it is very apparent in some cases. I've seen a pastor who had had a stroke and survived 15 years. He had unseeing eyes, wasn't able to respond by blinks or any means which would let us know he was mentally "alert". Extentions of him were a feeding tube in which a formula was sloshed in 6 times a day. Tubes to take away waste from his systems. Tubes to make sure he wasn't dehydrated. I had spoken to his wife who was by his side one afternoon, telling her i admired her strength in coping. She spent all her afternoons with him, reading from the bible and massaging the oils which he has so liked into his skin. She smiled, and said sweetly- that she didn't have a choice.
Taken aback, i murmured that she must be very tired, and went back to my patient. A strange thing happened then. My colleague asked me if the wife had been washing his face, and i responded with a startled no. Bending close to him, i noticed his cheeks were wet. He was crying.
Thinking back on this, im sure i'm not the only one who'll be able to tell you such stories. There are many more, stories of people holding on for one last family member, stories of people surviving when they shouldn't and those who should have.
Who's to say that someone has *left* us even though she's physically here? Who's to say whats wrong or right? I can only say that if anyone is to err, it should be on the side of life.
If you HAVE decided what you want and you're absolutely positive that you will never change your mind, there is such a thing as an AMD or advanced medical directive.
An Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document that you sign in advance to inform the doctor treating you (in the event you become terminally ill ) that you do not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong your life. I havn't though, and am not sure if i ever will. How do you know what you want right now won't be the opposite when you're clinging on to the last shreds of life?
Not something i want to screw around with.
