Unto the Least of These

Today I finished what I started during jury duty--reading Fighting for Dear Life. It's the account of the Schiavo case from the perspective of the attorney who represented Terri's parents in the fight to keep her feeding tube attached.

The most interesting part to me was actually not information about the case itself (good as that was) but the stories of person after person considered hopeless who later "woke up," sometimes even decades later, and in one case returning to the practice of medicine! In several instances the person who had been in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) had knowledge of events that happened during that PVS--such as 9/11 with its "bad airplanes" and "flying into buildings." We are still in the realm of the mysterious when it comes to understanding the brain, which should give us pause when thinking about hastening death.

At the end of the book, the author talks about the weaknesses of Living Wills (I have one, I might add) and ways to protect ourselves from those who might want to hurry us to death's door. (Did you read about the transplant doc charged with hastening death so his team could get on with an organ harvest?) The author includes some sound legal suggestions for protecting oneself and one's loved ones.

I am not against "pulling the plug" in some situations. But I see a clear difference between prolonging life and prolonging death. And as for the Schiavo case, she was not near death and, in fact, the evidence seems to indicate that Ms. Schiavo was not even in a PVS. But nobody knows for sure because her spouse barred anyone from running tests to find out. That's the part that gives me chills. (Not the good kind.)

I think the information is important for everyone, but especially for those in abusive situations, who live with hyper-controlling spouses, or who know those who are. I encourage you to use the documents provided in this book to set up a small team of three or more folks who must unanimously agree before life support could be disconnected should you be incapacitated.