March 22, 2005
Starving is Painless According to NYT Experts
In a reassuring article today, the New York Times quotes experts who say dying for a lack of food or water can be painless.
Dr. Russell Portnoy, chair of palliative care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York says, "It's usually quite a peaceful death...The person generally looks as if he or she is drifting off to sleep, and then dies.''
This should be good news for Terri Schiavo's parents, who have brought their daughter's case (with the help of Congress) to federal courts. After all, if their efforts fail they can rest easy, knowing Terri will not suffer as she starves.
Her husband, adulterer Michael Schiavo, should also be relieved. Oh wait, I don't think he felt too badly in the first place...at least, not until the $1 million settlement from the hospital came through.
It's also good news for those of us who feel guilty watching commercials for "Save the Children" which feature hungry children in Third World countries, whose large, teary eyes plead with us via the camera to send donations in their names to the world-renowned charity.
The UN is also off the hook for the Oil for Food scandal. If the people who were supposed to get the food (but didn't) died as a result, what's the big deal? They didn't suffer a bit. They simply went to sleep and didn't wake up. Experts say the world is overpopulated anyway. It's kind of like abortion, but after the fact.
And how about countries who can't (or won't) feed their populations? Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, for example, has been accused of deliberately causing a food shortage and starving those who oppose him to death. That's a small detail. According to the experts quoted by the Times, starving is not a cruel and unusual death.
Finally, the world can stop blaming the U.S. for being "haves" while there are so many "have nots." If we don't send enough money quickly enough when the next natural disaster strikes, what does it matter? Starving isn't the horror it's been cracked up to be.
I don't know about you, but I sure feel better now and it's all thanks to the newspaper of record, the New York Times. Maybe I'll even start subscribing!
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