I think Terri Schiavo is already dead

I don't mean that in some sarcastic way. I mean that in the most respectful way possible. If life is sacred, then the question is: What is life? If you can't hear, smell, feel, see, taste, understand what is going on, and understand that you exist, are you really alive? I don't think so.

Terri Schiavo's parents still think that she can respond to them and that she can recover. I have heard from no qualified physicians who believe that. Instead, 18 experts have stated that she is in a persistent vegetative state, meaning her higher brain functions have ceased and will not come back. The parents are really hoping against hope that there daughter will come back to them and the tragedy of the condition gives them this false hope, because smiling and certain eye movements are really very primitive. The parents seem to me to be very niave scientifically, although I understand their grief.

To some extent, it does not matter what happens now. She is already dead and no act of congress, the courts, or the president of the United States can bring her back from death. No doctor can either. However, the question is who is to make the decision about the feeding tube.

Legally, the next of kin. That means the husband. Not the parents. I make decisions for my wife when she is incapable, not her parents who live 1500 miles away. As for the fact that Terri never told her parents what her wishes were, but did tell her husband, that makes sense. My wife and I speak about all important things like that. We live together. We speak all the time. While I am close to my mom, she hasn't a clue what is going on with me really. A person will usually often talk to his or her spouse (the person who would make the decision anyway). Not the parents.

As such, the arguments put forth by the parents and the right to lifers make little sense to me. I think abortion is immoral in most cases, but, here, life is not the issue. Life is more than just the body and the body, in this case, is all that is left. Let the body dies, stop functioning, or whatever you want to call it and let everyone involved grieve and move on with their lives.

Life is sacred, but it requires brain function

In a persistent vegatative state, almost all brain function has disappeared but it can seem as though the victim is reacting, even smiling at people talking to them.

"It's common for family members to make the claim that they believe the person is aware and knows they are there," said Bryan Jennett in an interview published Monday in USAToday. Jennett wrote the first clinical description of a vegetative state. She said there are about 10,000 similar cases in the United States.

The smiles and tears are simply neurological reflexes, experts say.

Schiavo, 41, has been at the center of growing international attention since her feeding tube was removed on Friday. She was stricken at 27, when her heart stopped, causing irreparable damage to her brain.

Schiavo entered a persistent vegetative state, which is described by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as "a condition in which individuals have lost cognitive neurological function and awareness of the environment but retain noncognitive function and a preserved sleep-wake cycle."

People with this condition will exhibit spontaneous movements and their eyes may open in response to external stimuli. They may also grimace, cry, laugh and "appear somewhat normal" the institute said. However, the patient cannot speak or obey commands and all higher cerebral powers have been lost. Without higher cerebral powers, one cannot think, move, feel, hear, see, smell, or understand that they exist.

To determine if a person has entered a persistent vegetative state, neurologists must find a total absence of all signs of consciousness, the conclusion reached by 18 experts who have examined Schiavo.

Her parents, however, hang onto the hope that Schiavo might one day recover, as was the case of a 38-year-old woman, Sarah Scantin, who emerged from a coma after 20 years. However, doctors stress that a patient's brain must be alive to recover from a coma, while much of the brain has died in a vegetative state.

Schiavo's parents have released photos and video clips of Schiavo smiling with wide-open eyes in an attempt to gain support for their bid to keep her alive.

Schiavo's doctors told the Florida Court of Appeals that her heart stoppage was was caused by a sharp drop of potassium in her bloodstream, which was most likely caused by intense dieting.