Tuesday, March 22, 2005
I HAVE QUESTIONS
1. Terri was conscious yesterday. Is she still conscious today? Has her feeding tube been replaced?
2. If Terri is no longer being given food and water through a feeding tube, is Terri being given water by mouth? If not, why not? She was conscious as of yesterday. She can swallow saliva. How can the withholding of water of an incapacitated conscious woman in a hospice be justified? What would be the worst medical consequence of attempting to give Terri water by mouth? How can a hospice maintain its license while refusing to give a conscious patient in its care the basic essential element of life...water? If the argument is that she would choke, what is the worst consequence of choking...death? Without food and water she is going to die. The legal people who hold her life in their hands want her to die. What would be worse about a sudden death by choking as opposed to a prolonged death by starvation?
3. Why did a doctor agree to remove her feeding tube? The doctor who did so must have seen that Terri is not comotose and is not a vegetable. Surely he had the option of refusing to remove the tube, yet he did not. Why?
4. Why has the staff of the hospice cooperated with the courts in killing an innocent woman?
