Etymology: Latin excruciatus, past participle of excruciare, from ex- + cruciare to crucify, from cruc-, crux cross
1 : to inflict intense pain on : TORTURE
2 : to subject to intense mental distress
- ex•cru•ci•a•tion /-"skrü-shE-'A-sh&n, -sE-/ noun
Thomas Sowell writes in his column today at townhall.com:
A New York Times headline on March 20th tried to assure us: "Experts Say Ending Feeding Can Lead to a Gentle Death" but you can find experts to say anything. In a December 2, 2002 story in the same New York Times, people starving in India were reported as dying, "often clutching pained stomachs."
This ties into what I mentioned the other day in Thoughts on Terri Schiavo
Of course, one only has to go without food for a few days (and water for a much shorter time) before the discomfort sets in. Terri has been without nourishment now for three and a half days.
There are reports that Terri is not even allowed to have moisture supplied to her mouth (normal hospice practice). And there she lies second by second, minute upon minute, hour after hour, with nothing to even distract her from the misery.
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