Terri's Pain: An Interesting Point

Argrif opines:

The main argument that I've heard in favor of letting Terri starve and dehydrate to death is that she's in a PVS so you "might as well" let her life end because there's no point to it and she won't suffer at all from the starvation and dehydration. But this is the thing, if this is true then she's not suffering now and there is absolutely no harm in letting her family keep her alive as long as they're willing to pay for it. If, on the other hand, the argument is that she would want to die because she is suffering then she is not in a PVS is she?

She's either able to experience pain or she isn't. If she isn't then it does no harm to anyone to let her family keep her alive. If she is able to feel pain then removing her feeding tube and letting her die by starvation and dehydration is horribly cruel and wrong. In that case, even if this could be considered a "right to die/euthenasia" case, this is still probably about the least humane way possible to end her life.

Seems to have a point there, I think.

posted by Ace at 07:58 PM

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