No Value On Life

I am very surprised at the number of people who voted in your poll in favor of leaving the feeding tube out of Terry Schiavo and allowing her to starve to death. This is a woman who is not dependent on machines to breathe or carry out other bodily functions. She is not suffering a terminal illness and could quite possibly live for several years as she was before nourishment was denied.

The key issue here is not what you or I would feel if we were in her situation but when it is right to withdraw care. If the only thing standing between her and death is what goes in her feeding tube. Mrs. Schiavo could be any handicapped person we see anywhere in the world.

It is wrong to bring the death about of an individual because they are seen as an inconvenience or an expense. It is also very shallow to think that there is no value in such a life. The strength of a society is in how it treats children, elderly, poor and handicapped people.

S.K.