Madam, - In his column of March 30th Vincent Browne refers to the withdrawal of the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo as a gross abuse. At the same time he sees a distinction between extraordinary means to keep people alive through radical medical intervention and someone being kept alive by normal means of subsistence such as food and shelter.
The issue, however, is far more complex than this. Tube feeding, to be effective in a case such as this, is an extremely complex medical procedure given that the patient is totally paralysed. Indeed, it could reasonably be argued that this procedure and what it entails is in itself an extraordinary means of keeping a person alive.
It involves 24-hour monitoring and treatment to maintain respiratory function, cardiac function, renal function, intestinal function, liver function, as well as treating fluid and electrolyte imbalances and preventing and treating fluid retention. Add to this the prevention and treatment of potentially fatal pressure areas, recurring pneumonia and a host of other likely complications and one is now using complex, invasive medical procedures.
Such measures could not only be considered as extraordinary but as an infringement of one's right to die with dignity, given that, according to all criteria, the hope of recovery is non-existent.
Whatever decision was made in the Schiavo case was bound to be contentious, but it certainly was not as simple as Mr Browne would have readers believe.
He then proceeds to the completely separate and different issue of abortion. Here, ironically, he trumpets the rights of the individual, while trampling the rights of the unborn child. - Yours, etc.,
Dr GABRIEL STEWART, Dublin 15.
Madam, - The tragic case of Terri Schiavo highlights the surreal attitude to human life that is prevalent in the West and particularly the US. In that country up to 39 million people live below the poverty line and there are plans to erode the social safety net even further. The US army and its allies have caused the deaths of up to 100,000 Iraqi people, a significant number of women and children included. President Bush himself presided over the death by execution of many people when he was governor of Texas.
Around the world the actions of Western corporations, governments and the World Trade Organisation have ensured that hundreds of millions of people live in abject poverty without the basic requirements for a dignified existence. Yet a whole country comes to a standstill in relation to a private, albeit tragic, matter. Of course it suits the establishment to have the public focus on an individual drama rather than the multitudes of preventable deaths occurring around the world every day. We don't want to upset the gravy train, do we? - Yours, etc.,
BARRY WALSH, Church Road, Blackrock, Cork.