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An image to make stomachs tighten
By JEAN HELLER
Published March 19, 2005
PINELLAS PARK - Starve.
It is such a graphic word, conjuring images of everything from weakness, dizziness and stomach discomfort to the sad eyes and distended bellies of malnourished children.
No longer do those who want to see Terri Schiavo kept alive refer to the question of removing her feeding tube. Now the language of choice is: "They want to starve Terri Schiavo to death; you wouldn't starve a dog."
Graphic. And compelling.
The tactic has been so effective that it stopped Congress in its legislative tracks in order to address the Schiavo issue.
"Words are defined by concepts, and the concept of starvation is deprivation and pain, of being tortured," said George Lakoff, professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley. "You say someone is being starved, it gets people's attention. Whoever chose that word did so knowing the emotional response it would evoke."
Those who oppose removal of the feeding tube believe Schiavo is sufficiently aware to feel discomfort or worse. They point to what they describe as a smile and to a video that seems to show her open her eyes in response to a doctor's orders and turn her head toward the sound of his voice.
"Even the Nazis were hesitant to use starvation and dehydration as a means of murder," Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council in Washington, D.C., said at a news conference outside Schiavo's Pinellas Park hospice on Friday. "It is untenable to think of food and water being denied to a disabled person."
Donna Kuntz of Lutz, another protester, agreed.
"I could never sit back and let it happen to my daughter," Kuntz said. "You never know if the person is going to feel it or not."
Lakoff and others say they don't believe Schiavo, if aware on any level, is sufficiently conscious to discern anything. Schiavo, 41, has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, according to her doctors.
"It's a big leap to go from seeing some evidence of brain function to a conclusion that the patient is aware," said Dr. Stephen Mernoff, a clinical assistant professor of neurology at Brown University. "In this case, it's way too big a leap."
Lakoff compares the battle over Schiavo's life to the Scopes Monkey Trial, which played out in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925 over the decision of high school teacher John Scopes to teach evolution in defiance of a Tennessee law. It was an era of struggle between traditionalists and modernists over values.
"What's changed?" said Lakoff. "This is a traditional clash between faith and science. Terri Schiavo is a dead body. She's not there anymore. But for many Christians, the concept of a soul is that it can think, perceive and feel, just like the person it inhabits. But that isn't possible without a brain. It is folk theory, and the antithesis of science."
The heart of the issue for some is whether Schiavo will suffer as she dies after the feeding tube is removed. Mernoff says she will not.
"People think that's a terrible way to go, but that's because they think of starvation as it would feel to them, people who are totally conscious and aware of their surroundings," he said. "In a case like this, however, the patient will feel nothing at first, then will experience renal failure, lapse quickly and painlessly into a coma and then expire. It is actually very peaceful."
Mernoff also said the hope of Schiavo's parents for a miracle recovery is in vain. "People waking up magically after 15 or 20 years - it just doesn't happen," he said. "If you look into these stories, there is always, always some factor that wasn't made public that is responsible."
Some protesters at Schiavo's hospice said they didn't feel as strongly about disconnecting ventilators - devices that help patients breathe when they can't on their own - as they did about feeding tubes because death comes more quickly.
"There is no more ordinary way to preserve rights than providing food and water," said Father Ron Aubin, a protester from Land O'Lakes.
Mernoff said that often, when a decision is made to turn a ventilator off, there is little or no sign of life left, which makes it easier to accept that the person is ready to die.
Asked why there isn't as much anger at the idea of disconnecting ventilators, Lakoff replied:
"There hasn't, has there? Maybe tomorrow."
Times staff writer Chris Tisch and researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.
[Last modified March 19, 2005, 01:02:12]
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