The Right To Live Or Die

Recently the feeding tube of an American vegetative woman was removed so as to end her life. She has been a living vegetable for the last 15 years and the feeding tube has been the only device that kept her alive. By removing it, she would be deprived of food and water and would be dead within days. Happy ending? To her husband perhaps, as he claimed that she wouldn't have wanted to continue living in such a state. A tragic ending? Her parents feel that she is recovering and that she would have fought to be given a chance for a full recovery. There are people who believe in miracles and they do happen but at what frequency? I wouldn't have wanted to continue my life as a vegetable as it would be too much for my loved ones to bear and I wouldn't want to waste my time lying there helplessly when I could have been reincarnated into another life form, if such a thing really exists that is. But more importantly, it is both mentally and financially taxing to the family concerned to prolong the life of a confirmed vegetable. I'm not being heartless or cruel, I'm just being realistic as somehow I feel that it's easier to bear with a short term pain or lost than to endure a long term agony. Sometimes, we do have to be cruel to be kind. By ending her life, the husband not only relieves her of her sufferings but also allows him and the rest of the family to carry on with life. It's a sad ending but it's inevitable. Though I'm agreeable to not prolonging such a life, I have my misgiving on how it's being terminated. Imagine dying starved and dehydrated. I definitely wouldn't want to end up being a hungry and thirsty ghost. It's bad enough to end another's life and to starve a person to death is just unacceptable to me. We don't even commit such an act to an animal what more to a living being even though a vegetative one. How then can we end the life of a vegetable without being cruel? Deprive her of air? It's a faster ending but it's just as gruesome, if not barbaric. We all have the right to choose how we want to live our lives, do we then also have the right to choose how we want to depart from this world? To a certain extent, we can but most of the time death is unpredictable. Thus, when one's time is due, one just has to accept it gracefully and hopefully leave peacefully and painlessly as well.

~~~ Stay Positive! Stay Happy! ~~~
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