Media matters has a rather strange statement made by Jerry Falwell on CNN March 27th.
FALWELL: She has never been on life support. A month ago, I was on a ventilator to breathe, and I had a feeding tube down my nose, just like she. And thank the Lord, I’m out of it, and I preached two times this morning in my Easter services.
But I’ve already given my living will. Don’t you dare pull the plug on me. I want to wake up in 14 years and say, “What day is it? What time is it?”
But I really think that the courts have been wrong –
BLITZER: But Reverend Falwell, you can’t compare, you can’t compare, Reverend Falwell, the condition that you’ve been in — and thank God you’re OK right now — to her condition. It’s been years since she’s been able to utter a word or anything along those lines. And all of the doctors, apparently, who have testified before various courts have suggested she’s not going to improve.
Jerry Fawell has always struck me as a very needy man. A man who needed attention at all costs. Wounded somehow – as if he has pursued something intangible he could never have but went after with every fiber of his being.
Tonight he is in in critical condition in hospital, five weeks after being hospitalized with viral pneumonia. The hospital says his condition is critical, his church spokesperson says stable.
“I want to wake up in 14 years and say ‘what day is it?’
He might not have that opportunity this time, of if he does, recovery will be a long process for someone his age. For the short period of time he spent on a respirator and with no deprevation of oxygen to the brain his higher brain function was left intact (although one has to question that with some of the statements he makes). Terri lost her cognitive ability when her bulemia triggered the severe heart attack.
Once cannot judge, but if it were me, pull the plug. Quantity and quality of life matter and so does my family. I will not put them through the prolongation of something that can’t be fixed.