I am apalled

Apparently a judge has ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube to be removed.

To say that I am unimpressed with this decision is an understatement. In taking this step, the judge has condemn Ms. Schiavo to a slow death by starvation and dehydration. Even the most heinous serial killer is given a more human exit from the world than this.

Her husband hold personal culpability in this death - it is by his actions in the courts that her tube is to be removed. Her parents have offered numerous times to take custody of their daughter, and he has refused to allow that to happen. His claim being that "she wouldn't want to be kept alive by artificial means". Perhaps that is true, but I don't believe that gives him the moral right to condemn her to a slow, painful death by starvation.

Over the last fifteen or so, there has been an emerging amount of evidence that suggests that 'persistent vegetative states' may well not indicate a complete lack of awareness of their surroundings and situation.

I find it disturbing that Michael Schiavo would not divorce his wife and allow her parents to take over. It leaves me deeply suspicious that he is after one thing - the money that he would collect from an insurance policy were Terri to die. If it were a matter of mere minutes after disconnection that she would die, I don't think I'd be anywhere near as upset. However, it will take days for Terri Schiavo to die, and those will be pain filled days for her - a death that would be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" if it was meted out to a condemned killer.

There's something seriously wrong with the rationale that allows people to play games like this and claim that this is the patients "expressed wishes". With nothing in writing, that seems to me to be a questionable call. Keeping Terri alive is no doubt expensive, and heart-breaking, but I don't believe that a 'do not resuscitate directive' gives Michael Schiavo the right to condemn his wife to a slow, painful death either.

Like the abortion issue, the lines that the Schiavo case draws are profoundly disturbing and at best arbitrary. I have a great deal of trouble with the notion of putting someone into a situation where they will suffer. Death doesn't bother me, but suffering really does. Starvation is up there with burning as one of the most painful ways for someone to die.

I think that the courts have missed this reality, and have condemned an innocent woman to a horrible, slow death. Michael Schiavo should be ashamed of his actions. He had many other exits from this situation that would have been much less objectionable than the one he chose.