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Ten years ago my mother, age 76 at the time, had a heart attack and stroke and was, as per the doctors, brain dead.  She lingered on with wires
and tubes keeping her alive.  No brain activity.

After three weeks of no sign of change, on Friday night we had a meeting at the hospital with her three doctors, the head ICU nurse, another
nurse that attended her, a "patient advocate" from the hospital.  My father, my three siblings and I, and our spouses also attended.  I had kept
the originals of Mom and Dad's Living Wills in my safe at home, and the hospital already had a copy on file.  I made copies for everyone, passed
them around, and they all read along as I read the original so that we all knew we had accurate copies.  It was plainly stated that she did not
want to be kept alive on machines, and that if she ever got to that condition, to unplug her and let her go.  My parents were both medical
professionals and fully understood all that entailed.

It was decided, and all agreed, that we would unplug her the following Monday morning.  Dad came to me after saying he just couldn't do it, and
asked that I be there to do it.  I am the one in the family that was always assigned the dirty work, take out the trash, pick up the roadkill skunk in
front of the house, the stuff nobody else would do, so once again a dirty deed fell to me to take care of.

I walked into her room in ICU at the designated time, 08:00 Monday morning, and the room was empty.  Bed stripped, room cleaned up, floor looked
to be freshly waxed.  I stood there and thanked God for taking my mother during the night so I didn't have to carry the burden of killing my mother, or
rather, give the order to do so.  And nobody bothered to call me saying she was gone.  I had driven in from out of town.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, I jumped 3' off the floor.  It was an ICU nurse.  "You mother came to last night and we moved her to a regular
room."  Yes, my mother woke up, had brain activity, and after removing the tube was breathing on her own, and could speak a little, though her throat
was sore.  Less than a week later she was home and soon was driving herself to physical therapy.

We've had her with us now for 10 years.  She's nearly 87 now, and has seen her grandkids graduate from school, seen some married, has held and
fawned over great-grandchildren, and every day has been a blessing for the family.

When the Terry Shiavo thing was going on I thought I knew what was what.  Let her husband go on and unplug her, poor thing.  She's already gone.  
But I now know that it is not my decision.  Faced with the same situation again I don't think I'd be able to unplug the person and let them go.  Not my
decision.  I can't do it.

And every time I think of how close I was to doing this a shiver runs down my spine.

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This does not look brain dead to me.  Husband already had a new girl and wanted the insurance money.  Parents offered divorce and he said "NO"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbNLchN3JQE

Quoted:No one from the family "unplugs" or turns off anything themselves.  That is done by the nurses.

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I like how he is giving all of the commands while the big shiny balloon that is moving where he's "telling her where to look" happens to be is out of frame.

This video shows she isn't brain dead as much as a video of sunflowers following the sun shows that they are conscious.

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Thank god there is 0% chance you will ever be involved in any of my families medical care.

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This does not look brain dead to me.  Husband already had a new girl and wanted the insurance money.  Parents offered divorce and he said "NO"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbNLchN3JQE

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No brain activity and the machine was keeping her alive for years, he made the right call.

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oh bull shit...people should and in some states now do have the right to die.  And should, like a DNR, or advanced directives be allowed to choose a quick way to pass on.

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My grandmother lived in Freeport, Tx - Tx has it wrong in the situation.  My paternal grandfather died under hospice care in Lufkin TX back in the late '80s - I would have pushed a syringe for him as well.  

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This. Also he already was shacked up with someone else and wanted her dead. There is more to the story

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She wasn't on life support.  They didn't pull the plug and let her body die; they removed a feeding tube and starved her to death.

I'm just saying that there is more to the story. Money and another woman were part of the equation, like it or not.

I'm just saying that there is more to the story. Money and another woman were part of the equation, like it or not.

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You can't be serious.  

This woman lived as a vegetable for 15 years.  We aren't talking 15 months, or even 15 days....15 years.  No one I know would want to *ahem* live like that for any amount of time, much less a decade and a half.  Of course it came down to money, and of course another woman became involved.  Are you so selfish that you wouldn't want your spouse to move on with their life, or would you rather have her clinging desperately at your bedside every day for non existent hope??  You would want her to potentially struggle financially while she finds nursing homes that will care for you, or sit back and watch as you slowly decompose in the bed...with no chance to truly mourn?  

Her husband waited for 8 years until he first petitioned to remove feeding.  8 years.  8 years with his wife laying in a nursing home bed in a persistent vegetative state.  He satisfied his requirements as a husband, and no sane person would think otherwise.  The fact that her parents were able to supersede his rights as her next of kin was the true crime here, not them pulling the feeding tube.

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No brain activity and the machine was keeping her alive for years, he made the right call.

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And her parents offered to take all of that off his shoulders and let him go free and clear if he'd grant a divorce--of course he'd miss out on the insurance money.

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You can't be serious.  

This woman lived as a vegetable for 15 years.  We aren't talking 15 months, or even 15 days....15 years.  No one I know would want to *ahem* live like that for any amount of time, much less a decade and a half.  Of course it came down to money, and of course another woman became involved.  Are you so selfish that you wouldn't want your spouse to move on with their life, or would you rather have her clinging desperately at your bedside every day for non existent hope??  You would want her to potentially struggle financially while she finds nursing homes that will care for you, or sit back and watch as you slowly decompose in the bed...with no chance to truly mourn?  

Her husband waited for 8 years until he first petitioned to remove feeding.  8 years.  8 years with his wife laying in a nursing home bed in a persistent vegetative state.  He satisfied his requirements as a husband, and no sane person would think otherwise.  The fact that her parents were able to supersede his rights as her next of kin was the true crime here, not them pulling the feeding tube.