For those who may not have seen

[unixronin]

...and who are tempted to be swayed by the claims that she reacts to stimuli and could wake up some day, go look at this thread and the scan of Terri Schiavo's brain compared to a normal, undamaged brain.

If, like me, you're not a neurologist, pay particular attention to this comment thread, posted by a professional neurologist.

I'm sorry, folks, deal with it:  Terri Schiavo is dead.  She's been dead for fifteen years.  Her body just hasn't keeled over yet.  She can never recover.  She cannot possibly have any significant cognitive ability, and the "responses" she reportedly displays are purely autonomous reflexes.  It's not even meaningful to talk about starvation being a cruel death.  That brain isn't capable of supporting enough higher function to be aware of it.

Let the poor woman's body die.  She's GONE.  Continuing to keep her body alive with a third to half her brain mass gone, and the rest atrophied, is morbid and macabre.  This is not a woman.  This is a hundred and twenty pounds of bone and meat that once was a woman.

Comments

[jilara.livejournal.com]

You've touched on something that bothers me about some of the fundies who are championing this case. For people who supposedly believe in heaven, they're terribly afraid fo death. Or else they are mean-spirited enough to want to deny heaven to this poor woman for as long as possible. Which could be a very interesting challenge to their position, because no matter which way you slice it, they're not operating by their claimed beliefs.