LET'S STOP CALLING PEOPLE VEGETABLES

A voice on the radio referred to someone in a coma as being a "vegetable".  What a horrible term! What kind of people use such awful terms about fellow human beings who are compromised?

People spoke of cognitively disabled Terri Schiavo as being in a vegetative state. That was not true. She was cognitively disabled human being who deserved dignity and respect, not disdain. She was not a vegetable. Nobody is a vegetable regardless of the severity of their disability. People do not change their species. Calling someone a vegetable is a ugly, derogatory term meant to strip them of their humanity.

I look forward to a day when calling people vegetables or being in a vegetative state will be as unacceptable as calling African Americans niggers referring to gays as faggots. They are all horribly demeaning terms that have no place in civilized society.

MDP