SASH
Well-known member
They shoot horses, don't they?
By DEAN DEXTER
The drama surrounding the withholding of food and water from Terry Schiavo, the brain disabled woman in Florida, has opened a vigorous national discussion on how best to deal with people in her mental state.
As people rage over whether she should slowly die without the feeding tube that has nourished her for 15 years, some say Ms. Shiavo is oblivious to any feelings of suffering or of her surroundings as her brain is but mush. Yet we are also told she is being given a morphine drip to ease any pain she may be experiencing. Confusing…
Anyway, as this family conflict has unfolded, I've been wondering if it would be more humane to simply put a bullet in the lady's head.
We recall Karen Quinlan, a teenager who ended up in the same state of affairs due to an alcohol/drug over-dose, but was kept alive on a respirator. The debate was whether to remove the respirator. Would this be murder? After a similar national spectacle, the machine was turned off. But Karen Quinlan didn't die. Society wasn't bold enough then to discuss removing nourishment, so she lived in a coma for 10 years, dying in 1985.
Today, we are told feeding tubes are removed from people like Ms. Shiavo "everyday." This goes on "thousands of times," we are assured by soft-spoken professionals in the media. Really? I wish I'd known this when I held office so I could have drafted some cost-saving legislation.
Yesterday it was respirators! Today it's nourishment! I say bring on the bullets.
But why stop at people like Ms. Shiavo? My favorite moments as a county commissioner were visiting the county home where I'd have great times swapping stories with the grand residents there. I knew an old Micmac Indian who talked about life in Canada before moving to Laconia. He loved the holidays when the kids visited to sing Christmas carols.
Then there was the gentleman in a walker who kept asking the nurses out. "Hey, how would you like me to take you down to the Crystal Café tonight for some nice oyster stew," he'd ask the trim 20-somethings in their white uniforms. The Crystal Café had been closed for a generation.
But I would see sad things on my visits. People in the hallways, their frail, boney bodies resting on pillows in big chairs, gently tied with restraints so they would not tumble over onto the floor. They would rock back and forth, often howling, screeching, calling out mumbo jumbo. Attendants (sometimes family) would spoon feed them puree as they were helpless to do it for themselves.
Taxpayers pay thousands of dollars every day to support these people who cannot feed themselves, who surely have no appreciation for visitors, or holiday carols, who scream crazy, nonsensical things day and night. They have no quality of life. Surely if they knew anything about their miserable conditions they would want to die. So let's kill them. Quickly! This two week business of starvation and dehydration is inhumane. My grandfather treated his horses better. When it was Old Cal's time, it was a bullet behind the ear up in the north pasture.
We are far too timid at the moment to speak such things, but truly bullets are the future, or chemicals. But I like bullets. They are cheap and we have the expertise available. At Belknap County the jail is attached to the nursing home. Sheriff deputies, highly trained in the use of handguns, could wheel those who are "ready" once a month (living will or family permitting — for now) down the corridor to a secure place. Loved ones could be present. The high school glee club could sing, for extra credit. The chaplain could even say a non-sectarian prayer (this is a government building, you know).
We are an enlightened society. We've been allowing mothers to rid themselves of deformed or unwanted children from the womb for years. Not only the deformed ones. "Oh no, not another boy" …. Whoosh. We allow any mother to "solve" the Down syndrome problem any way she "chooses." It's time to take on the heart-break (and tax draining, inheritance-eating expense) of Alzheimer's. Those who cannot not feed themselves, tell a good story, or appreciate the memory of a good oyster stew, would be ready for "The Deputy." That's the test. That's how we'd know.
With funding for nursing homes in crisis and Medicaid money in doubt due to budget deficits, now is the time to act. This starving and letting useless people die of thirst is far too inhumane and inefficient. Bullets are the answer.
Dean Dexter of Meredith and Concord is a former newspaperman who served two terms as a Belknap County commissioner and three terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
By DEAN DEXTER
The drama surrounding the withholding of food and water from Terry Schiavo, the brain disabled woman in Florida, has opened a vigorous national discussion on how best to deal with people in her mental state.
As people rage over whether she should slowly die without the feeding tube that has nourished her for 15 years, some say Ms. Shiavo is oblivious to any feelings of suffering or of her surroundings as her brain is but mush. Yet we are also told she is being given a morphine drip to ease any pain she may be experiencing. Confusing…
Anyway, as this family conflict has unfolded, I've been wondering if it would be more humane to simply put a bullet in the lady's head.
We recall Karen Quinlan, a teenager who ended up in the same state of affairs due to an alcohol/drug over-dose, but was kept alive on a respirator. The debate was whether to remove the respirator. Would this be murder? After a similar national spectacle, the machine was turned off. But Karen Quinlan didn't die. Society wasn't bold enough then to discuss removing nourishment, so she lived in a coma for 10 years, dying in 1985.
Today, we are told feeding tubes are removed from people like Ms. Shiavo "everyday." This goes on "thousands of times," we are assured by soft-spoken professionals in the media. Really? I wish I'd known this when I held office so I could have drafted some cost-saving legislation.
Yesterday it was respirators! Today it's nourishment! I say bring on the bullets.
But why stop at people like Ms. Shiavo? My favorite moments as a county commissioner were visiting the county home where I'd have great times swapping stories with the grand residents there. I knew an old Micmac Indian who talked about life in Canada before moving to Laconia. He loved the holidays when the kids visited to sing Christmas carols.
Then there was the gentleman in a walker who kept asking the nurses out. "Hey, how would you like me to take you down to the Crystal Café tonight for some nice oyster stew," he'd ask the trim 20-somethings in their white uniforms. The Crystal Café had been closed for a generation.
But I would see sad things on my visits. People in the hallways, their frail, boney bodies resting on pillows in big chairs, gently tied with restraints so they would not tumble over onto the floor. They would rock back and forth, often howling, screeching, calling out mumbo jumbo. Attendants (sometimes family) would spoon feed them puree as they were helpless to do it for themselves.
Taxpayers pay thousands of dollars every day to support these people who cannot feed themselves, who surely have no appreciation for visitors, or holiday carols, who scream crazy, nonsensical things day and night. They have no quality of life. Surely if they knew anything about their miserable conditions they would want to die. So let's kill them. Quickly! This two week business of starvation and dehydration is inhumane. My grandfather treated his horses better. When it was Old Cal's time, it was a bullet behind the ear up in the north pasture.
We are far too timid at the moment to speak such things, but truly bullets are the future, or chemicals. But I like bullets. They are cheap and we have the expertise available. At Belknap County the jail is attached to the nursing home. Sheriff deputies, highly trained in the use of handguns, could wheel those who are "ready" once a month (living will or family permitting — for now) down the corridor to a secure place. Loved ones could be present. The high school glee club could sing, for extra credit. The chaplain could even say a non-sectarian prayer (this is a government building, you know).
We are an enlightened society. We've been allowing mothers to rid themselves of deformed or unwanted children from the womb for years. Not only the deformed ones. "Oh no, not another boy" …. Whoosh. We allow any mother to "solve" the Down syndrome problem any way she "chooses." It's time to take on the heart-break (and tax draining, inheritance-eating expense) of Alzheimer's. Those who cannot not feed themselves, tell a good story, or appreciate the memory of a good oyster stew, would be ready for "The Deputy." That's the test. That's how we'd know.
With funding for nursing homes in crisis and Medicaid money in doubt due to budget deficits, now is the time to act. This starving and letting useless people die of thirst is far too inhumane and inefficient. Bullets are the answer.
Dean Dexter of Meredith and Concord is a former newspaperman who served two terms as a Belknap County commissioner and three terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
