If they're willing to continue her care, and obviously want to, why does he feel the need to have the last (no horrible pun intended there) word?
The crux of the case is that the husband says that Terry told him she didn't want to be kept alive in case of coma, etc. But there is no written will. He sort of went on with his life while leaving her in a nursing home--he's got a child (or two) with another woman, but never divorced.
Her parents are arguing that he wanted her insurance money, etc. Husband claims it's all gone towards her care.
The legal point should be next of kin gets to make the decision. Her husband is next of kin. If he feels he's following her wishes, it should end there. But her parents insist that she just needs more therapy.
Amy, he says that she expressed very clearly that she would never want to be kept alive like this and that he feels it is cruel to force her to stay alive in a world after she has, for all intents and purposes, been dead for more than a decade.
It's very difficult for me to be rational about this; DH's father died very slowly from ALS and was down to 80 pounds and no means of communication by the time a family member did as he'd requested in earlier years and removed his feeding tube to let him die. If that person had done so publically, s/he could have been tried for murder. It just makes me sick to my stomach to even think about.
That's the thing -- the parents are quite plainly not living on this planet any more.
They claim she's responding to them. She hasn't got any fucking cerebrum to do that. There is no brain there.
Is she in some weird gray area between being totally brain-dead and being... responsive?
eta:
She hasn't got any fucking cerebrum to do that. There is no brain there.
So she's completely brain-dead?
No. She is totally brain dead. MRIs show that her cerebrum has been replaced by fluid.
People who have a working brain stem move, open and shut their eyes, and make noises. She does all the above. That doesn't mean that she's thinking or responding.
Can he divorce her, legally?
See, this is something I don't understand. Husband/Wife = Next of Kin. End of story. If MY parents or Joe's parents EVER put up this kind of fight, I'd probably do the same thing.
Is she in some weird gray area between being totally brain-dead and being... responsive?
Her cerebral cortex has
liquified.
Yeah, there was a thing in Mouth says she laughs and stuff. But, I think not.
