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I think part of the reason why such decisions are so difficult is that people refuse to think clearly when it comes to life and death. Emotions and religion take over instead of logic, which is understandable on the part of the relatives, but others should keep their emotions and religion to themselves.

There is a huge difference between killing someone, assisting someone to commit suicide, or letting someone die of natural causes or an accident without interfering in the process, especially if that is the person's expressed will. Where does it say in the Bible or in any religious text that we have to keep people alive no matter what, even in a vegetative state, and against their own wishes? Perhaps God meant to take this person away and people just interfered 17 years ago.

This is a side issue, but I'm convinced that only part of the people who are so upset about letting someone die after having kept the person artificially alive for many years are equally upset when people are killed by bombs. Didn't Italy send troops to Iraq to kill Iraqis for no good reason at all? If I remember correctly, it was the same pious government too.

I don't want to belittle the difficulty in this decision; it must be hard to let a loved one go, but it must also be hard to watch a loved one day after day as he/she is lying there as a living dead. Once the family has made its heart wrenching decision, others should simply stay out of it. I know that if I ever got to a point that there were no reasonable expectation to return me to some sort of quality life, I wouldn't want any heroics. I not only wouldn't want to live for years on respirators stuffed full of tubes, but I wouldn't even want to be resuscitated if I happened to die "momentarily." I made this very clear to my relatives, and I expect them to respect my wishes and others to stay out of it. Sometimes it's letting people die that shows respect for life and human dignity.

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