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CECELIA FRANCISCO STAFF WRITER CAF722@CABRINI EDU

If you love someone let them go. This is always easier said then done. In cases like the one involving Terri Schiavo, it’s easy to see how and where battle lines were drawn. The hard part is knowing who should win the fight.

How many times have you found yourself, especially after the big debate of Terri Schiavo’s, talking with relatives and saying, “If that ever happens to me I want you to pull the plug,” as if your life wasn’t worth the possibility of a miracle.

I understand that if you are pronounced brain dead, then you have basically slim to nil chance of coming out of it. I also understand how that could lead relatives to lose hope in the recovery of their loved one; However, what if you were trapped, and you had no way to communicate that you were still there and you really wanted to live despite what you had said in passing, or in a heated debate in the past?

There’s a woman from New Zealand who lapsed into a deep coma after having knee surgery while having septicemia, a bacterial infection. She had talked with her husband once about lifesupport situations and had told him that she wouldn’t eventually that if she didn’t improve within the following 36 hours they would have the hospital turn the machines off and stop her treatments. After the decision was made, he sat down next to her bed and held her hand and asked her to squeeze his hand if she could hear him.

The woman squeezed his hand every time he asked, with a desperate need to survive. She was aware of her surroundings despite her coma, and despite the fact that everyone was oblivious to her slight consciousness.

Now, knowing that this can happen but is not always possible, are you willing to say out loud to your relatives, “if that ever happens to me, I want you to pull the plug,” with the clear, concise knowledge that you may be conscious of what’s going on while they are starving you to death for two weeks like Terri Schiavo? And, with no way to communicate your consciousness with the ones you love?

Moreover, would you want to put your family through the guilt of knowing forever that it’s possible they murdered you? Not only murdered you but starved you, which I might add is cruel and unusual punishment.

If they are going to rule that life support can be turned off, but it means that the person has to starve to death, then there should be a law passed stating that they can be euthanised. Of course that would never happen because then all assisted suicide would have to be legal and that’s not right either, or is it?

Lines are being drawn, crossed and redrawn all the time. There is no black and white.

Everything is all gray matter on this subject. If there’s one thing you should be sure of, you should have a living will drawn up so that your wishes will be followed should something happen to you. Of course, what if you fill out that living will, and no one knows that you’re conscious because you can’t communicate to them that you’re alive and you want to live despite your previous wishes? Just some thoughts to keep you up at night.