Why Not Take A Chance?

According to this story, the doctor's have removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

I cannot understand why anyone believes this is a good idea. Assume that Terri did tell her husband, a man who doesn't really stand out as an example of an exemplary human being, that she didn't want to live like she's living. What if she changed her mind? What if she doesn't want to die? What if she can hear and see and experience those around her who love her?

A few weeks ago on an episode of ER, Cynthia Nixon played a woman who had a stroke and couldn't talk or write. However, she was fully coherent and could hear everything being said around her. At one point, her husband is trying to decide whether to take a chance on a risky procedure that could help her or to not take the chance and at least have her alive. The scene is from the woman's point of view and the voice in her head was screaming, "Yes, go for the procedure!!!"

What if Terri is screaming in her head, "Don't take out the feeding tube. I want to live." Even if she is isn't, why not take the chance that she is?

What follows is the process of death that a person who has a feeding tube goes through. It doesn't seem too pleasant:


_Day One: The percutaneous endoscopic gastrotomy tube, which is placed through the skin and into the stomach, is removed in a simple surgical procedure. Patients who do not have mental cognition to have a sense of thirst or hunger will not be uncomfortable.


_ Days Three to Four: Urine output decreases and patients begin to lose normal body secretions. The mouth begins to look dry and the eyes appear sunken. Patients will look thinner because the body tissues have lost fluid. Their heart rate gradually goes up and their blood pressure goes down. In some patients, dehydration releases endorphins in the brain that create a state of euphoria.


_ Days Five to 10: People who are alert have a marked decrease in their alertness. Respiration becomes irregular with periods of very fast and then very slow breathing. Some patients will become restless while others will be less active. For patients in a persistent vegetative state, there may be no discernible change in their movements.


_ Days 10 to Death: Patients do not appear to respond to their environment at all and may appear to be in a coma. Length of death process is determined by how well-nourished patient was and how much body fat and fluid they had when procedure began. May be outward signs of dehydration, like extremely dry skin. Kidney function declines and toxins begin accumulating in the body. Toxins cause respiratory muscles to fail. Multiple organ systems begin to fail from lack of nutrition.