Terry Schaivo

She died this morning after 13 days without food or water because the courts ruled to take her feeding tube away.

American law has failed. The law is supposed to protect people from injustice. And the greatest injustice has just occurred. She died a painful death - perhaps the most painful of all - starvation.

If Terry Shaivo truly said to her husband that if she were ever in a vegetative state to simply die, I doubt she meant that during the last 13 days. A brain damaged person with no food or water lived for 13 days! To me, it's obvious she was struggling for her life as this is about the normal length for non-brain damaged people.

However, I had a recent experience where my pet cat just decided to not drink water or eat food. I tried to feed him but it was obvious he didn't want to live any more. I probably waited a couple days too long to put him down. So the question remains for Terry is: Was she dying prior to the feeding tube being removed? Because she'd been in that state for a couple years, I'd say 'No' she wasn't dying.

Maybe pets have it easy. When they get put down, they inject them with an overdose of anasthesia. If you've never had a general anasthesia before you simply don't know how wonderfully painless it is. Quite amazing really. I had a double dose when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. You feel a gentle rush coming up to your head and quietly, you close your eyes. It's really the best way to die, rather than suffer the immense pain of starvation. For those who die in their sleep, I guess they're lucky.

The Right To Die issue is a slippery slope. Where is the line drawn for the law to agree that a person has a right to die due to medical pain if they have stated so in a living will? If you had terminal cancer and it was very painful, do you have the right to choose to die? According to American law, you don't. As far as I know though, Terry did not have a living will, just her husband's word. Was it her choice? Her parents would say 'Definitely not.' But perhaps the time has come to draw the line, so the law doesn't fail again.

Many of you know, I'm a God fearing/loving person. But let's leave God out of this one for a moment. Say you're in an uncurable pain every moment and you simply don't want to live anymore. Do you have the right to choose to die?

Now, where do we draw the line between physical pain and mental pain? Maybe the person's physical pain isn't as bad as it is, and they use it as an excuse to relieve them from the mental pain they're feeling. So now is it suicide?

Suicide, in some cultures, is considered a noble act. Some, it is not. So who's right? What if all the bad people in the world decided to kill themselves for the benefit of mankind? Well, that won't happen. But what about suicide or kamikaze bombers?

I've heard of people who knew when their time had come and they go visit family and friends once last time, then the next day they're gone. I don't know about this. Then I hear they drank themselves to death or something - I guess its induced death then.

Survival is an animal instinct and humans are no different. While your body may be about to die, humans have had the tendancy to hang on and struggle for life no matter what. Death can be painful, and our instinct is to pull away from pain. It's a remarkable capability we have. Life wouldn't exist if it wasn't worth it to be alive.

Okay, so now let's bring God back into the issue. God, to me, is the energy force of everything - especially this instinct of life I mentioned. For this, we humans also need emotional, mental, and physical energy to live a good life. For Terry, she had loving parents who gave her that emotional energy at her bed side and they say she communicated it back to them. The feeding tube provided her physical energy. How a person feeds themsevles is irrelevant to the debate. The Pope is being fed in a similar manner right now. Now mentally, who knows what's going on in her mind, so I think it's best to assume that she had mental capabilities -- even if she was in a vegetative state.

The fact of the matter is that her husband was about to run out of the medical money to sustain her and he gave up trying for more. Interestingly, now that the money is gone, he came out saying that she wanted to die. May God have mercy on this man when his hour approaches, because for Terry in her last 13 days, the law knew no mercy as she was obviously struggling for her life.

The issue is simply: respect the life you are given and of the lives of others well.

Terry Schaivo is a hero, not because she's a martyr, but because she struggled to prove the most important thing -- life.