If the Daily Illini Editorial Board were addressing a different case of euthanasia or assisted suicide, they might have had an applicable argument about religion in their editorial entitled “Right to dignity,” printed Feb. 28. They were, however, writing about Terri Schiavo, a mentally and physically disabled woman whose only “life support” is food and water. She is not on any artificial life support; no machines are keeping her heart pumping, her lungs breathing, or her kidneys working. She’s not ill. She needs food and water. That’s it. And the last time I checked, the same could be said for most of the rest of us in the world.

So the way in which they intend to “let her die” is by taking out her feeding tube – taking away her access to food and water. They’re giving her a death by starvation and dehydration, a particularly cruel method of torture used in the Middle Ages. Regardless of religion, nobody should be starved to death, and if Terri dies this way, she will suffer more agony in her death than she might currently be experiencing. So much for dignity.

Lisa Mueller

University alumna