A different drummer

"What happens is she loses fluid from her body, she enters a peaceful coma, and she gradually passes away, very gently and very peacefully," said Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatric and internal medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York quoted by FOXNews re the medical community's understanding of death by withdrawal of food tube:

[He] said that while coma patients recover, patients in a persistent vegetative state do not. He also said it was wrong to characterize Schiavo's death as starvation.

These are some of the facts that are either ignored or -- just as likely -- unknown by the armies of salvation sworn to consign Terri Schiavo to what we -- and the Florida judges who have heard her case through the years -- believe is a fate worse than death. Peggy Noonan, in her much-cited op ed yesterday, kept implying that Terri is slumbering in a coma. Does Peggy believe that, or is she using the image for rhetorical effect? The blogosphere is bristling with fiery rhetoric condemning anyone who would question their mission to get the feeding tube turned back on.

Our readers know where we stand philosophically on the tragic issues rending relations between Terri's husband and her birth family -- mom, dad, bro, sis: None of our business, and certainly none of Tom DeLay's business. As Virginia Postrel said on MSNBC this morning, that's why these decisions are left to the courts. Bloggers may say whatever they think/feel, of course, and it seems most of our favorite bloggers -- Michelle and LaShawn most prominently -- are marching to the "err on the side of life" drum without considering either the quality of life nor the wishes of Terri as determined by the Florida courts time after time. Michelle links to videos of Terri allegedly responding to outside stimuli, extremely painful to watch and a horrific invasion of the poor woman's privacy in our view. We obviously march to a different drummer.

Comments

[Teresa]

I am not going to get into who is right or wrong in this case... it should never have become a national issue. But I will strongly - even vehemently - state that doctors will often say the most amazingly stupid things...

"...she enters a peaceful coma, and she gradually passes away, very gently and very peacefully,"

Um.... horse hockey! He's got absolutely zero idea if this is true or not. I worked in hospitals long enough to realize that doctors will spout outrageous crap (I think to make themselves feel better when what they do in the line of medicine is actually painful). It is possible she will die peacefully - it is also possible that she will die horribly - we don't know because we can't get inside her mind to find out what she actually feels or if she knows what's happening.

I remember watching doctors work on preemie babies with no anesthetic... as the infant's muscles all contorted, mouth open in a silent scream of anguish (because of breathing tubes) - the doctors always calmly assured everyone that the baby could feel nothing... yeah right and I have a scalpel I'd like to stab you with right now.

I'd have far more respect for them if they would admit that they really don't know what the patient feels - all or nothing. But for them to pontificate that the damage will keep her from feeling anything - well unless they've become mind readers - they are just full of it.