After listening to dozens of conversations about this situationover the last many weeks, I have come to a few conclusions. Things I thought I was sure of, I found out I wasn’t. Positions I formerly took, have been changed. I have become more disillusioned with our courts. Do I think I am in possession of the definitive answers to all the questions raised by this situation? Nope. But here are some thoughts in no particular order of importance.
1.Using this woman’s circumstance as an example of end of life issues was flawed. Everyone agrees that taking extraordinary measures in keeping someone alive can fall into the cruel and unusual treatment area real quick. But this was not the case for her. She only had a feeding tube. No respirator, no continual dialysis or any number of other incredibly invasive medical tools available to us today. Using her case as a springboard for support of euthanasia is ludicrous. Though I did hear people doing that.
2. The courts are not the final arbiters of ethical behavior. They are hopelessly flawed in favor or against certain philosophies. Some judges have lost their way and insisting on the removal of the ten commandments from certain courtrooms proves this. We are not in possession of any inherent moral, ethical or legal impulses divorced from the great principles given to us by God. As examples: It was legal to own slaves in America at one time, it was legal to make black people use separate bathrooms, lunch counters and theaters, it is legal to have an abortion WELL past the first trimester, some people want to make it legal to kill terminally ill people. None of these things are ethical or moral, but they were, or may become, legal.
3. The fact that Terri’s husband hindered her parents from being with her near the end of her life, OR to be given her body to bury as they wish, proves to me that he is a miserable human being.
4. Everyone has been saying we should all have an advance directive signed and sealed in case these issues arise in our own lives. I read one of those forms a few days ago, and found that document in no way is complete enough for me. There are HUGE areas left open for interpretation by others, and in my opinion it is not clear enough to assure your relatives will not have to make some hard choices. I found that I could not in good conscience check any of the boxes on that form. Oh, yes, there is a place for you to write your own directions. But the array of possible scenarios that could occur at the end of my life, left me at a loss for words. I had no idea what I would write in there.
5. These choices would be a lot fewer if we always erred on the side of life….or death as the case may be for you. But we do not have consensus, because we don’t have clarity on what should be uppermost. Our needs, or the needs of the infirm.
6. Just because it is inconvenient to have people in Terri’s condition around, this is not reason enough to refuse her sustenance. Though we COULD have a long and complicated conversation about hooking people up to ventilators. Food is one thing, air is another. If you can’t swallow, this does not mean you should be given up on. Ummm, the POPE is using a feeding tube at the moment. If you can’t breathe, well this is another thing altogether.
7. I used to think I knew what I thought about these end of life issues. I really did. Now I am not so sure. I think I have jumped the fence into a more life affirming place than I was before.
8. There is an assumption that I heard someone say on television …. He said something like, “…. Everybody agrees that the “real” person is in the mind, and if the mind is gone, then they are gone.” This makes perfect sense if you are an atheist. But it makes no sense to me. I think that the “real” person resides in the soul, which resides in a body (in this world) and as long as the soul is present in this world, it can effect all the worlds. We should be very careful who we usher through the gates of death before time. These things really SHOULD be left in the hands of God as much as is possible.
9. Because of the incredible advances of medical interventions, we are able to save people that otherwise would most certainly have died. In the case of accident or illness, these tools are a wonderful blessing. But we also are able to use these same interventions to prolong life under questionable circumstances. Again, I don’t think Terri fell under this category. A feeding tube is a pretty rudimentary intervention. However because of our advances, we have created dilemmas for ourselves that stretch our moral and ethical values to their absolute breaking point.
10. If we as a society take the position that people like Terri are just too damn much trouble, just remember, that you are going to get old and decrepit one day too. Make sure that the measures that you SAY you support are ones you want to be applied to you. And you better take into consideration the “drift” factor. When abortion first became legal, it was only permitted in the first trimester. Now they can stick an instrument into the brain of a baby in the womb, kill it and then deliver it. I don’t THINK anything of that nature was ever DREAMED of by the courts back in the 70’s. So if you sign your “advance directive” today, the criteria for the phrases “vegetative state” and “terminally ill” may have very different meanings 30 years from now.
11. There are worse things than being in a body that has betrayed you. And that is living in a society who will turn on you at the first sign of infirmity. "Oh, you need dialysis? Do you know how much that COSTS? It would really be in our best interests if you just check out now okay? Sign here please, there’s a good citizen."
12.I do believe that if the person is conscious and refuses any medical treatment, we should get out of the way, and give them care and comfort with great compassion.
13.Which brings me to the final observation. A society that kills its unborn and its infirm will never learn true compassion. And a society without compassion will fall.
I realize that all of the above is certainly debatable, and we should debate it, long and hard. But I’ll tell you, the truest and best answers to these questions will not be made on a television program that craves sound bites and simplistic presentations with nice neat conclusions. We need to find another way to address these things, far from the car and shampoo commercials. It is too important for such a frivolous venue.
There is a prayer that is said in Judaism when you hear of someone’s death. It goes like this:
Baruch ata Adoni, dayan emet.
Which means, Blessed are You Lord, true judge.
The assumption is that God decided when it was someone’s time to die, and we bow to His higher knowledge. But for the first time, I saw this prayer in a new light.
Perhaps in this case, it is we, our society, that God will have to judge.
May He show us mercy.