...so this is based on limited information, but from what I've heard, the family is looking at little signs...random noises and motions...as the justification that they believe she's starting to come back. They're also making an issue of the fact that the woman doesn't need an ventilator.
That's not enough medical information for me to decide, one way or the other, if the woman is basically an empty shell, though I suspect she is.
The tough part of this for me is that her husband wants one thing, while her parents want the other. Whose will SHOULD take precedence...not so much with the law, but with what's right?
The cheesy, dime-store crime novelist in me wonders if the husband has something to gain (inheritance, etc.) when the woman dies. I also wonder, if the husband is tired of his responsibility to his wife, why he can't get a divorce and leave her to her parents. Is it simple devotion to what he believes her wishes would be, or is there some other reason. To be honest, I've read nothing in the news to fill in these blanks...either in supporting my far-fetched musings, or to explain if it's just that the husband wants her to die and be at peace.
If the husband is on the up and up, staying true to his wife and doing what he believes is the best for her, by all means, it should be his call. But it's still an ugly situation.
One more point before I quit rambling. I'd like to see some discussion about how this situation compares with the debate over the death penalty. In particular, we've heard some very convincing arguments against the death penalty that say if there's the slightest chance that a person might be innocent, they should not be executed and that, because our court system has so many inherent places at which the death penalty process could fail, we can't ever be sure we're not executing innocents. Contrast that with the uncertainty (real or imagined) over whether or not the woman is still there and has a chance of coming out of her coma.
Apples and oranges? Probably. And I don't mind if that's the general consensus. I just think it's a good topic for debate out here and am interested in what all of you think.
Unfortunately, I have to drop this on you troll-style. They're moving us to another building and they're coming to take my computer in less than a half-hour. I'll watch for as long as I can, but will probably not see any of this until much later. |
