tfl: The Flatiron Life

There are many things that I don?t understand about Terri?s case. I don?t understand how we came to this point. If her husband said that she would not want to be fed by a machine years ago, why was she being fed up until last week.

From what I can gather, he parents are contesting her husband?s decision. I don?t understand why her parents have any more say then you or I would? After she was married they lost their right to legally make a say in her life.

I don?t know if other issues were decided by the court in this case. If there are still outstanding issues then I think Terri should have remained alive. However, I don?t know what else the court could have done if there was no evidence of the husband committing some form of wrong doing. He seems to be acting in a form of good faith and firmly believes that this is what Terri wanted.

It is true that he has a family with another woman now, but that has not legally absolved him of his marriage bonds. I have to think if I were in the same situation, I would have divorced her and allowed her parents to be responsible for her, unless I truly did believe that this was not what she wanted.

I have also heard people talk about this as a case relating to abortion. I don?t get it. The argument here seems to be if this woman at one time as a sound minded adult told her husband if she wanted to be taken off of machines. It is not about if your spouse can just choose to kill you. The unborn and severely disabled have not yet or never will have the ability to say they want to die if they were their situation, so their guardians should not be able to kill them. This seems like a simple line to draw.

I don?t want Terri to die anymore then I want any other person to die. It just seems to me that we already have systems in place to deal with these situations. These systems are in place to ensure that people are able to exercise their rights of self determination. Terri chose her husband. She trusted him to be the person who would care for her if she were ever incapacitated. Now he is doing what he believes she would want.

What do you think? Email me.