First off... Janine, what if that were Marky on the bed. Put yourself in the situation. Would you be willing to let Marky just starve.. even if you thought he was incapable of "Thinking like the rest of us" (Which hasn't been proved because the husband's doctors say he's a vegetable and the parents' doctors say she isn't totally and I don't honestly know what the truth is.
I also have a major issue with your premise that.. she's missing her cerebral cortex.. she's a vegetable.. she doesn't think like us.. therefore it's OK to kill her in this manner. I'm suddenly remembering freshmen ethics class when we discussed abortion and how you define a person. It seems that your answer is.. she's not a person, so as long as she feels no pain, it's OK to kill her like this. She doesn't understand what's going on anyways. What makes her not a person? Why is it OK to let her die that way?
More to the point, what's the real harm of letting her parents take care of Terri? They want to do it. They've been fighting in court for YEARS to do it. So why should we, as Americans, believe the right answer is to let her die?
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Date: 2005-03-23 02:54 pm (UTC)I also have a major issue with your premise that.. she's missing her cerebral cortex.. she's a vegetable.. she doesn't think like us.. therefore it's OK to kill her in this manner.
I'm suddenly remembering freshmen ethics class when we discussed abortion and how you define a person.
It seems that your answer is.. she's not a person, so as long as she feels no pain, it's OK to kill her like this. She doesn't understand what's going on anyways.
What makes her not a person? Why is it OK to let her die that way?
More to the point, what's the real harm of letting her parents take care of Terri? They want to do it. They've been fighting in court for YEARS to do it. So why should we, as Americans, believe the right answer is to let her die?