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DECISIONS
Florida woman’s right to die denied

Everybody’s got to die someday. True, making arrangements for the inevitable doesn’t top the to-do lists of most busy college students. In fact most of us would rather not think about death at all.

But next time you shrug off the subject of mortality, think of Terri Schiavo.

Schiavo is a Florida woman who is part of a literal life-or-death battle. She has been in a vegetative state since 1990. Her husband, who claims Schiavo did not want to be kept alive in such a state, had doctors remove her feeding tube Oct. 15.

Schiavo’s parents, however, didn’t agree that she should be allowed to die and took their battle to the state government. There, it was decided that Schiavo doesn’t have the “right to die” after all. Schiavo’s feeding tube was reinserted by order of the governor Tuesday.

Sadly, Schiavo never put her final wishes in a living will, so there is no reliable way to really know her wishes.
The ridiculously simple solution to avoiding the Florida fiasco is this: Make sure all of your immediate family members know what you would want if you are ever put on life support. You can go on believing you’ll live forever, but it never hurts to have a backup plan.

If you don’t trust your loved ones to follow through on your wishes if tragedy strikes, then consider making a living will. There is plenty of information on the Internet that can help you put one together.

Yes, it’s weird to talk about death and life support with your parents. But the pain of a drawn-out conflict like Schiavo’s is well worth avoiding.