A Comment to My Post about Terri Schiavo
I thought you might be interested in this comment from Pastor Jack, Sr. on my posts about Terri Schiavo. I’m putting it here because I know most of you may not read the comments section on each entry.
“Having worked in a hospital counseling critically ill and dying people and their families I can assure you that the inability to respond in no way means there is no awareness of what is happening around them nor that they are unable to hear what is being said around them. I have seen people considered, by today’s standard, to be in PVS who later are able to respond tell what went on and what was said. We never discussed a patient’s condition in any negative terms in their hearing. We would however provide encouraging conversation.
We live in a world today where modern technology can keep a person “alive” by putting them on a machine that breathes for them and causes their heart to keep beating by electrical stimulus. Once it is determined that there is no hope of a person recovering from this I have no problems with pulling the plug in these situations and in fact have been involved in helping people make these decisions, both families and patients. In these cases I consider that we are simply putting a person into the hands of a loving God and letting Him determine what happens. But food and water is not something that God has provided to be generated automatically in our system. We have to ingest them and when we, or others for us, refuse them we die. One would be considered suicide the other murder.
So much for my 2 cents”