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March 21, 2005
The Passion of Schiavo
I am frankly somewhat puzzled over the whole Terri Schiavo controversy. While I can understand why Terri's defenders (who believe that she may well be conscious and aware, in some sense) are motivated to prevent her judicially-approved murder, why are some Democrats and at least one judge so eager to see this poor woman die? Especially in light of the fact that we have recently seen a man awake from a persistent vegetative state after 19 years of apparent non-responsiveness.
And then there is the court-approved method for arranging her death: removing her feeding tube so that she can die of dehydration and starvation. (Just imagine the liberal outcry if some legislature were to suggest using this method for executing convicted murderers...)
Gerard Van der Leun (from the quite excellent American Digest) has several posts related to this topic that I found thought-provoking and worthy of mention:
March 21, 2005 at 02:47 PM | Permalink
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Comments
"The culture of life vs. the culture of death?" Oh, please, get a fucking grip. Yes, it's without a doubt terribly wrong to kill an incapacitated person based on hearsay from someone who stands to gain by their death, and I can't for the life of me understand why Florida chose to do this (but frankly, I personally can't understand why we continue to allow that putrid redneck swamp to be a state anyway), all this hand-wringing and political hay-making over the life of one vegetative woman, while all over this planet people are having terrible, unconscionable things happen to them today while we all politely avert our eyes is just plain revolting.
No such outpouring for civilians getting blown up each day in Iraq or raped to death in Sudan or DRC, let's all collectively freak out about poor little Elian Gonzales, or tsunami victims, or Terry Schiavo. This is the apotheosis of sick news media-driven crap.
One more thing... aren't we (as Republicans) in favor of states' rights? What happened there? Does this Party have any kind of ideological platform anymore apart from the one imported from 700 Club?
Posted by: number77 | Mar 22, 2005 9:44:06 AM
The key thing here is that she is in a non-reversible vegetative state. The only impartial person to see her and write about it, a doctor appointed by the court, concluded that in a very sensitive report.
I hear that being in a vegetative state is a horrible thing, especially for the family, because they do not know how to cope. Now it seems that everyone, the family, the press and the politicians do not know how to cope.
When the time comes, some people will feel that she died from starvation, other people will feel that mercifully, her reflexes were allowed to stop. But, I think everyone will be surprised by how deeply sad they become.
Nobody is wrong in this situation, it is beyond that, everybody is just lost and confused, or they are heartless and using this for political gain.
This has become a political battle and it should have been left as a family matter.
Posted by: BA | Mar 24, 2005 12:41:06 AM
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