I sat with Carol as she answered questions.
“Do you have a ‘living will’?” an admissions secretary asked.
“No,” Carol said.
We took two free living will forms; I read one while Carol completed her test.
The form’s five printed pages began with these words: “In cooperation with the 1990 Patient Self-Determination Act, FirstHealth of the Carolinas supports a competent adult’s right to make decisions regarding the acceptance or refusal of medical/surgical treatment.”
The hospital provides information about “medical care decisions and advance directives” during every patient’s admission, the form stated.
Page two of FirstHealth’s living will form featured this headline: “Declaration of a Desire for a Natural Death As Set Forth in the Right to a Natural Death Act.”
I continued reading.
“I, _____, being of sound mind, desire that as specified below, my life not be prolonged by extraordinary means or by artificial nutrition or hydration if my condition is determined to be terminal and incurable or if I am diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state.”
Vegetative state? I imagined a giant cabbage lying on a hospital bed.
After Pope John Paul II died, I watched TV scenes showing thousands moving past his body and pictured a large cabbage or cauliflower wrapped in papal vestments. No, the image didn’t fit. Perhaps the idea of calling a human being a vegetable has roots in disregard for this Bible message: Man is created in God’s image; man is different from and superior to animals; man ranks far above vegetables.
And when we judge a person’s worth by assessing only what he may contribute to “the world,” the law of the jungle — not God — rules.
Some imagine we originated from low-level life forms. That theory may encourage us fallen creatures to revel in our “animal instincts” — even worship them in films and literature — and question God’s existence. “Made in the image of God” has no meaning if there is no God.
God exists and human life is sacred. This was part of Pope John Paul II’s message and part of God’s revelation to man.
Albert Einstein said, “We are a society with a perfection of means but a confusion of ends.”
Doctors often extend life by artificial means, so who decides when one dies?
Dr. David Stevens, president of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), says studies of the health-care community have found that health-care professionals making quality-of-life decisions always thought the quality of life was lower for the patient than the actual patient did.
The CMDA says Terri Schiavo’s death reflects a “failure of a medical system that failed to insist on a definitive diagnosis consensus, a legal system that failed to deliver due process, and a culture that failed to distinguish between artificially prolonging life and deliberately ending life.”
A new poll shows American’s may have been misled about national feelings regarding Schiavo. Polls first indicated 60 to 70 percent of Americans thought her life-sustaining feeding tube should have been removed. After her death, a Zogby poll posed this question: “If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life-support — and they have no written directive — should or should they not be denied food and water?”
According to Zogby, almost 80 percent of Americans believe a feeding tube shouldn’t be removed. Some say earlier polls misrepresented Terri's condition.
A priest said he once prayed with Schiavo and saw her close her eyes as he began praying and open them as he finished.
A friend in my office said about depriving Schiavo of food and water: “I wouldn’t treat my dog that way.”
Of course, discussion of euthanasia, which I oppose, followed. Pulling Schiavo’s feeding tube amounted to euthanasia — a slow-motion version that helped some imagine she died naturally.
Before my wife and I left , I said to two nurses, “These living will forms don’t seem simple, and you might get a Dr. Kevorkian on your case.”
I haven’t signed a living will, yet. I may need to talk with my doctor — and my pastor.
Steve Crain may be reached at crain207@earthlink.net.
