Is This Life?

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Comments

  • PJ_Soul said:
    PJ_Soul said:
    I understand them clinging to hope. Yes.
    Even if it means your child lives for years in pain, with literally no life though? I actually don't get how any parent could live with that choice.

    I wouldn't be one of those parents. I'm just saying I understand where some parents might cling to hope.

    I'm not arguing for keeping vegetables alive.
    Oh yeah, I didn't think you were. I'm just trying to understand how it's understandable, lol.
    I’m real weird. A moron lol!
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • josevolution
    josevolution Posts: 31,783
    There's no way i would of kept my child in that state for all these yrs man this is so sad on all fronts , i'm blessed that's all i can say ..
    jesus greets me looks just like me ....
  • hedonist
    hedonist Posts: 24,524
    I hope I'm never referred to as a vegetable or veg.  Seems disrespectful, but maybe that's just me...?

    I'm thankful to live in a state where assisted suicide is available.  When the time comes, do it, take whatever usable is left of me, and burn the rest.  My husband's on board with this (not sure if that's good or bad :whistle: ).

    The initial question got me thinking of what life means to each of us. Without some semblance of progress or improvement, I can't see living unable to communicate or care for myself, let alone the horrific thought of unanswered / unknown pain...and I can't imagine being in this poor woman's position for so long.


  • gimmesometruth27
    gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 24,396
    i'd rather be dead than in a vegetative state. but, since i would not be conscious, i would never know the difference.
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • PJ_Soul
    PJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 50,759
    edited January 2019
    i'd rather be dead than in a vegetative state. but, since i would not be conscious, i would never know the difference.
    That isn't always the case, depending on the condition. It is found that some people in a vegetative state do indeed feel pain. Not much else, but constant terrible pain. It seeks that this woman who was raped and gave birth is likely one of those people, as she seemed to feel and react to the pain of labour.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • hedonist said:
    I hope I'm never referred to as a vegetable or veg.  Seems disrespectful, but maybe that's just me...?

    I'm thankful to live in a state where assisted suicide is available.  When the time comes, do it, take whatever usable is left of me, and burn the rest.  My husband's on board with this (not sure if that's good or bad :whistle: ).

    The initial question got me thinking of what life means to each of us. Without some semblance of progress or improvement, I can't see living unable to communicate or care for myself, let alone the horrific thought of unanswered / unknown pain...and I can't imagine being in this poor woman's position for so long.



    My wishes are to be cremated and to use my ashes to grow a tree or plant of some sort.

    The cycle of life.
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • eddiec
    eddiec Posts: 3,962
    I was picking my wife up from the hospital one morning (she's a nurse) and I heard this screaming- by the sound of it I thought it was a female cat in heat. I had to wait about twenty minutes for my wife to come out. The whole time I could hear this screaming. I was in a side car park surrounded by a few wards so a lot of people were able to hear this as well.
    On the way home, I told my wife about the screaming cat. That's when she told me: a routine surgery had gone wrong and the woman was left a vegetable. She was able to breath but couldn't walk and apparently had no brain function. I asked my wife how she could scream then. She told me the doctors think she's 'locked in'. That phrase has haunted me ever since. It's possible the woman could hear and maybe see her family and surroundings but was unable to move or speak- all she could do was scream. I think she was like that for a year before she died.
  • kce8
    kce8 Posts: 1,636
    eddiec said:
    I was picking my wife up from the hospital one morning (she's a nurse) and I heard this screaming- by the sound of it I thought it was a female cat in heat. I had to wait about twenty minutes for my wife to come out. The whole time I could hear this screaming. I was in a side car park surrounded by a few wards so a lot of people were able to hear this as well.
    On the way home, I told my wife about the screaming cat. That's when she told me: a routine surgery had gone wrong and the woman was left a vegetable. She was able to breath but couldn't walk and apparently had no brain function. I asked my wife how she could scream then. She told me the doctors think she's 'locked in'. That phrase has haunted me ever since. It's possible the woman could hear and maybe see her family and surroundings but was unable to move or speak- all she could do was scream. I think she was like that for a year before she died.
    God, that's horrible. 

    I agree on what was said here before about nobody wants to let their loved ones live in a vegetative state.
    But think about what that means. Are you really able to end that persons life? I mean what if it's your own child?

    My godsmother was in that situation in 2005. She and her husband had to decide to take my cousin off of the live keeping system when she was only 24 years old. 
    How could they do that? Yes, you don't want to let her live like that but how the f**k can somebody make that decision? You will still hope your child could wake up or doctors find a solution and help her. 
    You won't give up!
    You just can't!!!
    Would you ever forgive yourself? Would she wake up again, you will never know! 
    My cousin died the night before my aunt finally had to make that decision. Did my cousin know? Doctors said she wouldn't die by her own. Why did she die exactly that night?

    These questions will always be there. To finally have to make that decision is different to just think about it as long as you are not in that situation.

    What absolutely upsets me is:
    How could they oversee all the signs about the pregnancy? Menstruation, growing belly, Babys even move!, Babys heartbeat… How much care did these "caretaker" take about her? 
    And I know you can't blame everybody there for one guy raping her during his shift. If that was the case. But how could they not find out in maybe at least the last 5 month? 

    That's disturbing…
  • benjs
    benjs Toronto, ON Posts: 9,391
    PJ_Soul said:
    I understand them clinging to hope. Yes.
    Even if it means your child lives for years in pain, with literally no life though? I actually don't get how any parent could live with that choice.
    I agree with you logically, but emotionally I can't imagine the weight of that decision, and the agony of making it. It seems to me many people are not strong enough to make the 'right' decision and shut down the emotional half of their brains and think logically at the best of time - this scenario might make that ratio even worse because of the intensity of the emotionality. 

    I also can't help but think about what the parents who have been through this, and sees their child successfully healed with advances in medicine, and/or naturally comes out of their coma five, seven, ten years later, and what that parent's perspective is. To those parents, they are adamant that the decision they made was right - and society rejoices when they beat those slim odds, and talk about how sad it is when they don't. We're not Vulcans. That blind and illogical hopefulness, for whatever reason, seems part of our DNA.

    Or maybe I'm wrong, but the trend seems to be there.
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  • eddiec said:
    I was picking my wife up from the hospital one morning (she's a nurse) and I heard this screaming- by the sound of it I thought it was a female cat in heat. I had to wait about twenty minutes for my wife to come out. The whole time I could hear this screaming. I was in a side car park surrounded by a few wards so a lot of people were able to hear this as well.
    On the way home, I told my wife about the screaming cat. That's when she told me: a routine surgery had gone wrong and the woman was left a vegetable. She was able to breath but couldn't walk and apparently had no brain function. I asked my wife how she could scream then. She told me the doctors think she's 'locked in'. That phrase has haunted me ever since. It's possible the woman could hear and maybe see her family and surroundings but was unable to move or speak- all she could do was scream. I think she was like that for a year before she died.

    Eesh.
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • bootlegger10
    bootlegger10 Posts: 16,263
    edited January 2019
    Keeping this person alive this long is something Frankenstein would do.  This is 2019.  Unbelievable.
  • PJ_Soul
    PJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 50,759
    I always knew she wasn't in a coma, and that it was a vegetative state where she could still make sounds and feel pain. I did notice that some media outlets just randomly decided to start calling it a coma though, and I thought that was really strange, especially since it was very obvious that that wasn't possible. People in comas don't start grunting from pain when they go into labour.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • Geezuz what an ugly bastard. Do they purposely look for the most unflattering photo they can dig up?
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • Meltdown99
    Meltdown99 None Of Your Business... Posts: 10,739
    Geezuz what an ugly bastard. Do they purposely look for the most unflattering photo they can dig up?
    Maybe being ugly will serve this guy well in prison.  That is the US, he will be serving a very long stint.  In Canada, he'd probably get probation and an apology.
    Give Peas A Chance…
  • OnWis97
    OnWis97 St. Paul, MN Posts: 5,637
    Geezuz what an ugly bastard. Do they purposely look for the most unflattering photo they can dig up?
    Maybe being ugly will serve this guy well in prison.  That is the US, he will be serving a very long stint.  In Canada, he'd probably get probation and an apology.
    I don't know...there are plenty of times in the US where rape gets very under-punished.  See Turner, Brock.  Of course, I'm guessing "we don't want to ruin a young man's life" won't come into play as much this time.
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