On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 17:43:48 -0800 Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> writes:
> >On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:03:23 -0800
> > > >Yesterday, there was a guy on the radio confirming what my
> mother
> > > >has told me, as has a woman who had her mother and MIL in
> hospice
> >> >care. People don't really feel a whole lot of pain or hunger
> when
> >> >they're dying. They often ask, "Shouldn't I feel hungry?" This
> is
> >> >also the case in starvation studies. The body simply shuts down
> and
> >>
> >> >doesn't feel hungry.
> >> >
> >> Marta wrote:
> >> Terri's condition is not terminal. She is not dying as an old
> >> person
> >> would die at the end of life. She is a young woman completely
> >> healthy in those senses.
>
> Jim wrote:
>
> >Well, if one can call living without a functioning cerebral
> >cortex, being "healthy."
> >
> >
>
> Weren't we talking about the capacity to suffer while starving to
> death? There is another case I know of to be mentioned. Elizabeth
> Bouvia is a woman living in CA who has cerebral palsy who got the
> legal "right to die" by challenging the law. Since1986 the Bouvia
> court decision gave the individual the right to determine one's
> medical care i.e., to refuse medical treatment in the state of CA.
> Bouvia is in pain and on a morphine drip. She never died as
> planned,
> however, because she said it was too painful to starve herself to
> death, even with the morphine. So I don't buy it that people who
> have
> food and water taken from them "don't suffer."
Well, it seems to me that we are talking about apples and oranges here. If the neurological assessments of Terri Schiavo are anywhere close to being correct then she is lacking a functional cerebral cortex. If that is the case then there is no reason to think that she can feel pain or display anything that would be indicative of possessing consciousness. That's quite a bit different from the case of Elizabeth Bouvia who was fully conscious, and therefore could quite clearly experience suffering.
>
> Marta
>
>
> --
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