Let’s rant about Terry Schiavo!
So…
Terri Schiavo finally had the ultimate bulimic experience.
Before it becomes totally unfashionable, I suppose I may as well squeeze in my two cents.
And people thought Dr. Kevorkian was a bad guy….
First, this wouldn’t have become the media beast that it was if induced euthanasia was legal. When people think “pull the plug,†people think of respirators and all sort of other machines that are completely supporting a human’s ability to stay alive. Pulling those plugs usually lets the person simply die in a matter of hours, not weeks. It wasn’t until this case that it publicly meant starving someone to death, which is admittedly cruel and uncivilized. It’s a slow, grueling, undignified and hideous process. NO ONE wants to starve to death. Whether they know it or not, that was the real problem that many people, myself included, had with this.
The woman suffered irreparable brain damage. There is not medicine to fix that. If there ever will be, it won’t be for centuries. Once that tube came out, everyone knew she would die. So why drag it out? She’s not sentient. We have no idea what her body can relay to her brain, hence whether physical pain and mental anguish are part of the deal. So, if she’s going to die anyway, why starve her over a course of weeks? Why not just give her the injection and let her die gracefully and quickly?
If you want to pull a morality or legality ethics card here, keep it. Your dog has more rights to die with dignity than you do. Stick that in your living will.
I realize that in this situation, even if euthanasia was legal, it may not have happened. Deducing what she wanted was the real legal issue. However, if induced euthanasia had a legal precedent and ground rules, than it could have been inferred that that was more ethically right than the lazy man’s version from which she died.
The Circus is Over
I’m glad this is over because it became as much of a barbaric soap opera as it was a legal issue. It is very easy to cast stones on someone’s personal character with very little knowledge of that person. If it weren’t, Jerry Springer would be out of a job. If you made a judgment about whether the husband or the parents were good people or bad, you’re a Springer demographic and nothing more. The truth is you don’t know what the truth is. This is a family issue. Any of these people may be eligible for canonization as much as they may be evil shitheels. Even if you know one of the people in this issue, you don’t know the whole story, because so much of it is based on hearsay. Also, this included financial conflict, and we have all seen how quickly people can change when there’s a dollar involved. Bottom line is you don’t get to say whether the husband was a rat bastard who should have been skinned. You don’t get to say the same of the parents. You also don’t get to rely on hypotheticals, like “well, if it were my child….†You don’t know how you would act until you’re in the depths of that situation. I’m not defending any of these people. I’m just saying you don’t get to judge. That’s God’s job. Trust me, God’s more qualified, and you don’t want that job anyway.
Speaking of judges, here’s a hot tip for the indignant fascists who screamed bloody murder at the “liberal†judges and claimed the judges were legislating from the bench. First, the judges were mostly Republican and/or conservatives. Second, to judge against the law would have been legislating from the bench. What the judges were doing was their jobs. It just goes to show you how quickly fanatics will turn rabid when the legal interpreters from their alleged camp don’t agree with their individual and personal agendas.
Welcome to the Party
If anything good came out of this, it was that certain people who wield power finally got their noses popped for sticking them where they don’t belong. The majority of their constituents were against them. It’s sad that it had to come to this, but maybe some of the people who voted for those politicians will realize what they voted for. At the expense of generalizing, maybe they’ll pick their Republicans with a little more scrutiny next time. And maybe that majority will also realize the dangers of being led by a minority that so ardently advocates legislating morality. Welcome to the party. Hope you enjoy your taste of the same shit we’ve been eating.
