Thirteen

13 days with no water
13 days with no food
13 days with no idea why no one is helping her
13 days of fighting for life, hanging on, wanting to live
13 days of living despite being killed slowly
13 days of abuse
13 days of torture
13 days of depraved indifference

13 days and still she lives. Still she fights to survive.
If this is not a testament to the will to LIVE, I don't know what is.

If Terry was trapped and brain-injured on a mountain and managed to survive for 13 days with no food and water, we'd call her a hero. We'd rush critical aid and life sustaining efforts. She'd be on the cover of People magazine as a testament to God's miracles and power of the will to live.

But because her husband is doing this to her - because he has determined that she "wanted" this inhuman starvation process - we do NOTHING? She is still stranded - within her own body with no ability to help herself and no voice to cry out. Why are we compassionate on a sliding scale? Why does her mental state determine our level of human decency? Why is her innocent life deemed worthy of death when other innocent life is worthy of life? How does this make sense to anyone with a conscience and a soul? In my heart, I do not understand this approach to judging the value and status of the human soul by the limits of mental ability/ injury/capacity? We as people so much more than our bodies. Life extends beyond the boundaries of a mental disability. Devaluing the life of the meekest among us to the point where we undertake to kill them under the deluded blanket of "mercy" is an arrogant, strident step towards hell. This woman is being exterminated. And we are doing nothing to help her.

There can be no justification for this. Not ever.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/112/48.0.html