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Thursday, July 6, 2006
Being kept alive comes down to personal choice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“I don’t want to be another Terri Schiavo.”
A reader left no room forinterpretation when he ended his posting in the Badie blog with that declaration. It was part of his response to Tuesday’s column about Kathy Smith’s devotion and care for her invalid husband.
Chris Smith, a veteran Secret Service agent who had been in perfect health, suffered a heart attack March 25, 2005. It, for the most part, debilitated him, though he can hear and breathe on his own. He’s at home with his family in Lawrenceville.
Kathy chose love and honor over advice from doctors who suggested she end his life. She’s praying for a miracle to restore Smith to his old self. Readers of the column praised Smith for her selflessness. They pledged to pray for the family, which includes Caitlin, the 14-year-old daughter who ran the Peachtree Road Race in her father’s honor.
The reader who said he didn’t want to live like Schiavo wasn’t comparing Smith to the late Florida woman. He wanted to raise the issue of living wills, noting that his legal documents state that he doesn’t want to be kept alive in an extended vegetative state.
Please don’t take my stance as a slight against Mrs. Smith. She’s courageous, and I applaud her.
I’m like this reader.
I’d prefer that my wife, or whoever’s responsible for my well-being, let me go. Call it pride, but I simply wouldn’t want people I love, and who I have forged meaningful relationships with, to see me unable to walk, talk, eat or shower on my own.
Let’s say you have a solid family and a spouse as devoted as Smith. Would you want to keep living in a vegetative state? Would you want to live life in need of constant care, requiring help with any and all tasks?
After Tuesday’s column ran, Mrs. Smith posted her own comment in the Badie blog. ” … My husband had expressed a desire in the past to be ‘kept alive,’ ” she wrote. “He breathes entirely on his own without any added oxygen and has not been on a respirator since day 17 of his illness. We give him liquid nourishment and water through a stomach tube and he’s on limited medications. He also takes no medicines for his heart as there is no residual damage there.
“He still has the heart of a 30-year-old man. He’s bathed and exercised daily, listens to books and music on tape, and will hopefully have a handicapped van someday so that we can take him outside of the home for recreational outings and to church.
” … He is no less of a man than he was 15 months ago, therefore he deserves no less. In fact, he deserves a lot more than Caitlin and I will ever be able to give him because he is truly the best husband and father in the world; always has been and always will be. It’s our belief that God holds life and death in his hands and when Chris’s purpose here on Earth is complete, then God will take him to his true home.”
Mrs. Smith ended her posting with the same request she asked of me when I visited Monday: “We sincerely hope that everyone who reads this will pray for us and for Chris’s healing,” she continued. “God’s wonderful grace and tender mercies has seen us through 15 months. He assures us that it is everlasting, so we will stay the course until he says the time is up.”
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