3/25/2005 11:15:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|The most interesting part of this to me, is taking yourself off machines is suicide.
My mom says:
is not wanting to be kept alive on a machine really wanting to commit suicide? I feel that the "extra measures" used by the machine to keep me alive is not God's idea of living, so it's not committing suicide.
|W|P|111177109956942450|W|P|Machine Life|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/25/2005 10:55:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|A reader writes:
While I also do not know all the details, except what is being reported on the news, I know that I am not the person to decide what should happen. Neither do I think the government nor the president should be involved! One thing I do think is that removing the feeding tube and letting her starve to death is wrong and inhumane. I just think that whatever happens, there must be something a little better than watching someone you love starve when they have no means of communication! It also makes you realize how much you need to communicate and document what you would want to happen if anything should ever happen to you! Either way, I think it is a horrible case and I feel sorry for everyone involved..Especially Terri. Just think, she was our age when she suffered cardiac arrest..makes us appreciate each day we are healthily and well!
I agree that Congress and the President should not have gotten involved. This matter is completely up to the State of Florida. If Florida wanted to say that spouses can or cannot do this, it would be fine with me. In fact, I think each state needs to make a definitive answer to this question.
I also thing that pulling the tube would be a horrible way to die. Folks on TV have said that she does not feel pain. That might be. Some, have so far as to say that starving and being dehydrated is euphoric. I doubt that. Euphoria does not seem like it would be an evolutionarily sound survival instinct. I think that if we are going to allow people to choose to die, then we have to allow the use of medicines to kill them if they choose it.
We all should take some time to think about what you want done. Then tell your loved ones, tell everyone, say it on a blog what your wishes are. Make it clear. Everyone makes the off hand comment of not wanting to be hooked up to machines, but decide what you really want and let it be known. Then go enjoy the rest of your days, you know not the time nor the place.
As for me, as of right now I want to live no mater what. I think there are situations where I might want to be taken off of a machine, but I don't know what those are yet. And I already want to qualify me wishes, that is what makes this so hard.|W|P|111177073743768716|W|P|The responses are flooding in.|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/25/2005 07:25:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|I have lived in Illinois for 3 basketball seasons. The last two the Illini has been at a normal level of coverage on the news. However this season there were ranked number one for the whole season. Every night on sports it was "The Illini are still no 1!" I could ignore this. From time to time this week people would ask if I were excited about Illinois basketball. I would reply that I am a Hoosier (and then go on about how Make Davis is a .... rehired coach or something like that, grrr). Then I would say I grew up near Danville and have seen my share of blue and orange.
I was really really happy when they lost to OSU in the last game of the season. This kept Robert Montgomery Knight's 1976 Hoosiers as the last undefeated team.
Now they are in the tournament and everywhere I turn there is orange! Orange on the street, orange on the news, orange in my head! I feel dirty. The Illini have never won a Championship and I would like to keep it that way.|W|P|111175842179556975|W|P|Fricking Illini|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/24/2005 10:00:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|I am going to be building up an argument over the course of a few posts. It would probably be best to read them in the order I post them. This will be a sort of reverse order, bottom post first. Also, I really want you to email me what you think. If you think I am spot on let me know, if you think I am dead wrong let me know, and if you have a question about anything let me know.|W|P|111167777967036332|W|P|Guidelines for reading today.|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/24/2005 09:32:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Here is the timeline of Terri Schiavo.|W|P|111172156335451300|W|P|Terri Timeline|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/24/2005 09:22:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|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.|W|P|111172148500925195|W|P|Now Terri|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/24/2005 01:11:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Marriage is a special, sacred bond between and man and a woman. Both individuals leave their families to become something new, something bigger then its combined parts. This bond mean knowing everything about each other. It also means being responsible to and responsible for each other. Husbands and wife need to be individuals, but also parts of a new self acting as one. This is a bond that should be respected by our society and should not be entered into lightly. In our modern world this bond also has legal rights and responsibilities.
Communication between spouses is protected and considered privileged. Spouses cannot be forced to testify against each other as you can be forced to testify against other individuals. The law understands and respects that people are and should be at least as open and honest with their spouses as they are with other privileged individuals like doctors and lawyers. Others respect this type of speech so much that is has to be protected to ensure that all facts are examined under the law.
Your spouse should be the person you most respect and trust. The law and tradition only allow a single spouse because only one person can fill the role. Your spouse should have (and I always thought had) the final say for you when you could not speak for yourself. They are expected to control you and your things as you would control them. If you do not trust someone to do that, you should not marry him or her.|W|P|111169153911052072|W|P|The Bond of Marriage|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/24/2005 09:26:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|One of my principles is that man's natural state is alive. This is something all people should be able to agree upon, regardless of religion. This is reinforced as a Christian. I believe God creates us to be alive and we should try to be alive as long as God allows us. Being alive is not our purpose though; it is a means to accomplishing our purpose. Our purpose, our reason for existing, is to worship God. We all have different ways of worshiping, but we ought to worship him through everything we do.
However, we are told that when we die and if we enter heaven we will spend our day, for all of eternity, worshiping God. The catch is, that we cannot choose to enter heaven. We cannot kill ourselves and be accepted into God glory. Suicide is usually seen as a way of guaranteeing being left in the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Also, as it is natural for men to want to live, under normal circumstances it is unnatural for people to want to die. We should do all in our power to help suicidal people to over come what ever is ailing them.
There are times when no amount of counseling, no amount of medicine, and no amount of intervention can sway a person from wanting to end their suffering, real or otherwise. In these cases I don�t think we should prevent people from killing themselves. I am also not convinced that all these cases are suicide.
Many, maybe most, people say they do not want to be kept alive just to be on machines. If you do not want to be kept alive by machines are you saying you want to commit suicide in that case? Are you saying that you want to forfeit heaven? I don�t know the right answers to these questions and I think religious leaders would have trouble answering them. Are machines keeping you alive, or keeping from dying and possibly going to be with your creator? Are we playing God when we try to keep our bodies alive? Are these people even alive? Has the soul moved on already and this is just a shell of a person?
I know when and how people come to be alive. We are supposed to be alive. We are supposed to fight to stay alive for as long as possible. We should enjoy our life while we are alive. We will die one day, but I am not sure when and how people die.|W|P|111167989506639044|W|P|The paradox of life|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com3/24/2005 09:18:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|People are begging me to post so here you go!
Actually I have been running some things over in my mind that I want to post. Today i am going to try to say a few things about Terri Schiavo. I know this is not a fun topic but it is something that I have been trying to refine my opinion of for a week or so.|W|P|111167761257273442|W|P|I am still here|W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com