Delaware's Terry Shaivo
In Delaware, a young pregnant woman overdosed on Heroin and suffered severe brain damage. She was kept alive to bring the baby to term. The baby was safely delivered in 2007.
Since then, she has continued to live off a feeding tube. Like Terry Shaivo, her doctors say that she is in a permanent vegetative state, and that her brain is permanently damaged. She will never recover conciousness.
Her mother sought permission from the court to remove the feeding tube. She and an uncle testified that the young woman told them, during the Terry Shiavo episode, that she would never want be kept alive. The court granted permission.
However, her father (her parents divorced when they were young) believes that she should be kept alive. He appealled the courts decision even though the court found the evidence was clear and convincing that the young woman would want to die.
I have my personal beliefs, but would never want to impose them on another. Similarly, I would never want anyone to impose their beliefs on me. The only way to ensure that neither happens is for everyone to express their wishes in a living will.
