Sunday, March 20, 2005

NY Times: Starvation Death Not Painful

The NYT has spoken, let all discussion of the matter desist.

The newspaper that was most outraged over photos of Iraqi terrorist suspects being mistreated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison said Sunday that the two week-long starvation-execution of Terri Schiavo will cause her "little discomfort."

The Times also cites Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and palliative care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who insists that starvation victims "generally slip into a peaceful coma." (pretty definitive......or is it)

Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, says that in fact, for a conscious patient like Terri Schiavo, death by starvation will be fraught with agony.

"They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water. Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death."

If the Old Grey Lady is correct, we certainly don't need to go through all the trouble and expense of lethal injections. Just remove all food and water from the condemned, "they will experience little discomfort and in a couple of weeks they will just gently slip into a coma and pass on."

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