Neurologist, Mayo Clinic Lab Director: Terri Is No Vegetable

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So you look at it from a cost benefit analysis.


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I'm looking at war partially in a cost/benefit way, in sometimes spending some lives to save lives ultimately and to remove tyranny--but, I am not looking at Terri's case primarily in terms of cost/benefit. I am looking at her case more in light of her fundamental right to life, and that we don't have the right to irrevocably deprive her of her life without being very, very sure.

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What if a persons brain has been degraded to the point where that it would be impossible for them to become healthy again and have a normal life. Yet they were still conscious enough to feel constant agonizing pain?

Isn't the cost of living more expensive then the cost of death then?

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It might be in some cases, but I don't believe we have the moral right to decide that for others. What might seem an unacceptable cost/benefit to you personally might be perfectly tolerable or acceptable for another person.

Also, just because someone is incapable of living a "normal" life, does not mean that their life is not worth living--especially to them. And just because you might not be willing, hypothetically speaking, to endure great long-term pain for a minute chance of recovery, or for just the sake of being able to live, does not mean that another individual would necessarily be so unwilling.

[lastchance]

I just gotta say this. Your article was very, very nice and well-written. But, you've really got to stop letting your personal feelings cloud your judgment on what the facts of the situation are.

If you want to argue for a higher standard of proof here, do so, don't try to lower the proof that has already been looked at when you have so little knowledge of the case, and seemingly, don't really care (unless, of course, you read the entire public record of the case, in which case, I retract my statements).

In terms of what the law should say, I believe you make a good point. But clinging at straws never helps an argument.