Crying Carrots

Unlike Michael Schiavo, who actively sought to kill his disabled wife, Dr. Yacov Tabak fought for his wife’s life:

"Dr. Tabak couldn’t bear the term ‘vegetable’ when it was first presented to him, and since the Terry [sic] Schiavo ruling, says that some in the medical community have shown an ulterior, ugly side regarding this appellation. ‘There is a medical agenda with this term,’ Dr. Tabak contends. ‘It’s very difficult to get emotionally involved with a vegetable. To have a relationship with a carrot goes against human nature. But there is an underlying subtext here. If a person is a vegetable, he can be sliced up like a vegetable for a higher purpose. Perhaps for research, or for organ appropriation. His guardian can decide if he has the right to live or die. If value of life is now being determined by a subjective definition of quality of life, who’s to stop hospitals from having a mandatory tissue-type registry for ‘vegetables’ in case a person with a defined "better" quality of life needs an organ? This is a steep, slippery slope.’

[…]

"All the proof he needed came two days after Marsi [Tabak] opened her eyes for the first time. Shani Tabak, then 24, was at her mother’s side, speaking to her heart. ‘Mom,’ she said, ‘you have to get better. I can’t get married and stand under the chuppah without you.’

"And then Marsi began to cry.

"’Then I knew she was with us,’ says Yacov. ‘Her hearing was intact — the auditory nerves were apparently not injured. Her memory was intact, she knew who was speaking to her, and her emotions were intact. That was a pretty good inventory to start with. But our joy was limited by the sudden realization of the great danger Marsi was now in. The doctors could destroy her will to live. I went to her and said "Marsi, we know you can hear us, we are with you, we’re going to help you get well. Now, the doctors are going to say some pretty terrible things that you will hear, things like, ‘This patient is a vegetable and has no hope for recovery, we are going to suggest to the family that she be put away in a facility, she’ll be a vegetable for the rest of her life….’" Imagine if a person hears this and his cognition is intact. It’s like a person waking up and realizing he’s in a coffin and the lid is being nailed shut. He wants to shout, "I’m not dead yet!" but no sound comes out. Marsi was in such a state. For the first four months she suffered from cortical blindness, so she not only couldn’t move but couldn’t even see, and the outside world couldn’t hear her silent scream.’"

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