Bugs me that due to certain considerations, we cannot have a right to die with dignity at the time of our choosing.

But we can pull the plug, or stop artificial life support. If the life support is air, then the patient simply suffocates. If the life support is food, the patient starves. Either way it’s ugly.

Wouldn’t it be better if we treated such people with the same humanity as we treat convicted death row inmates, and gave them a painless injection?

Just asking.

Yahoo! News - Brain-Damaged Woman’s Feeding Tube Removed: “Brain-Damaged Woman’s Feeding Tube Removed

By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Doctors removed Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube Friday despite an extraordinary, last-minute push by Republicans on Capitol Hill to use the subpoena powers of Congress to save the severely brain-damaged woman.

It is expected that it will take one to two weeks for Schiavo, 41, to die, provided no one intercedes and gets the tube reinserted. Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, said his client was at his wife’s side shortly after the tube was removed.

The tube has twice been disconnected in the past, but was re-inserted within days in both cases. Similar appeals are under way in the current case.

The latest removal came amid a flurry of maneuvering by Schiavo’s parents, state lawmakers and Congress to keep her alive. Committees in the Republican-controlled Congress issued subpoenas for Schiavo, her husband, and her caregivers demanding that they appear at hearings in the coming weeks.”