I rarely change my mind once its made up, and rarer still on a matter i've discussed on the VOI. But on this issue, i must admit my opinions have strongly swung the other way.
I've been observing events closely this week, and everything is not as straightforward as it initially seemed to me -- death by starvation and dehydration is perhaps one of the worst ways to die, right up there with death by drowning.
The point on whether or not a person in a vegetative state suffers through death of this kind is moot in my mind: denying the body fluids and nutrients causes a terrible wasting decay; the body is utterly completely destroyed as it cannibalizes itself to stay alive. It takes a long, long time to die this way and its a cruelty i wouldn't wish upon anyone.
I'm still in favour of merciful death in some cases; but while the final outcome (i.e. death) may be merciful in a case such as Terri Schiavo's, the method of death is certainly not, and i simply can't agree with that.
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