Changed the music video again, cos I found that I cannot concentrate on reading my own blog entries. Not with the All-American Rejects screaming in the background.

Hence, nice, soothing, sugar-sweet Jewel. Anyway the music video is more interesting. The scenery of the desert is so beautiful. Hope you can see it. Don't blame me if it takes ages to load.

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Anyway, this time my blog entry isn't about me. Its about this American lady,Terri Schiavo, and how the fight for her life has caused the world to sit up and take notice.

It's really humbling to think that for 40 plus years of her life, this poor woman has been stuck in what doctors call, a "persistent vegetative state". To think she has been this way for all these years since that fateful day when she suffered a heart attack which cut off oxygen to her brain. She was only 27.

That's young. Too freaking young. I mean, she was robbed of a normal life with her husband. She could have done so many things, started a family, lived her life to the fullest. And yet, she's reduced to sitting all day in bed, unable to eat or drink without a tube inserted into her body, and nurses to care for her.

It's very sad.

And here I am, 19 years old, and thinking about it. At this age, you hardly think about the what-ifs in life. The world is this permanent place full of petty problems for you to solve, where every day is a new day and you don't think about disease or death. And the scary thing is, what happened to her could easily happen to you. I bet Terri didn't expect such a horrible thing to happen to her either. Like us, she was probably in the midst of living her life, and in less than a day, it had been taken from her.

That set me thinking, if it were me, what would I do?

I would choose to pull the plug.

What's the point of living. Yes, there could be medical breakthroughs that will save you, but that's highly unlikely to happen within a person's life-time. And to sit all day, and be unaware of your surroundings or the people you love, unaware of how much it hurts them to see you like this... That's terrible. I would not want to be a burden. Especially if I'm no longer the real me.

Well, most people think it's murder, but I think it's a form of release. I wonder what's going on in Terri's mind, if she still has one. It must be boring sitting in bed all day, unable to even watch TV or read a book. I'd probably be frustrated and depressed too, and feel like a liability to my care-givers and loved ones. But, isn't it unnatural to keep a person alive by artificial means too. If there were no medical break-throughs to wrench a person from death, Terri would have died long ago, by natural means. She would not be forced to live a half-life. If one can even call it half of a life.

However, removing a breathing tube now after all that suffering. It seems like it's too late. And the way in which she has to die, to slowly starve and dehydrate, is so cruel. I know Euthanasia seems controversial and is another can of worms, but it seems to be a more dignified way to go compared to wasting away to an empty husk. She doesn't have to go through more physical torture, after one long emotional one.

And now that Terri's case is all over world, more people are starting to think about signing Advanced Medical Directives. It's funny how people need to learn from their mistakes. How much sacrifice does it take? Many famous incidents in History could have been avoided if people could see the outcome of, or lack, of actions. Think Titanic, the World Wars, the tsunami disaster. All actually great catastrophes that could have been avoided or lessened to a certain degree.

And now people are saying, if Terri passes on, at least it won't be in vain.

But isn't a single life already too much.