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Perverse thought
Mar. 25th, 2005 09:47 amImagine of Pope John Paul II's throat condition got so bad he needed a feeding tube, and he decided that he didn't want to get one.
Mar. 25th, 2005
Since some people don't understand ...
Mar. 25th, 2005 03:40 pmI've seen more than a few things asking why "liberals" what Terri Schiavo to die.
This is a nasty piece of questioning, and it proves that the poor woman has, in many people's minds, become nothing more than a weapon to be used in a despicable partisan battle.
However, let me make clear what I think any person of *any* political persuasion should want for Terri Schiavo.
You should want her wishes regarding her medical care to be carried out.
*Not* her parents' wishes, however heartwrenching it might be for her parents if Terri would not want medical care to continue.
Being fed through a feeding tube is a medical procedure; you're allowed to say "no". If someone feeds you through a feeding tube when you've refused, that person is assaulting your body and your freedom. Now, there are exceptions, just as there are in all circumstances. However, those exceptions do not include "your parents insist you really would want this, in the face of evidence that you would not."
Do I want her to die? No, I want her to wake up with a miraculously restored cerebral cortex - hers is currently completely gone, or so close to that as makes no difference - and have a similarly miraculous solution to all the awkwardness this would entail, and go on to live a full and happy life. While we're at it, I want world peace, an end to world hunger, and a whole bunch of other things. Oh, yeah, and enough money to put Chris through college, put into a trust fund that can only be accessed if she actually *goes* to college. Give me enough miraculous wishes, I might even come up with something for myself... but I digress.
Everyone, liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, or any other political designation you can come up with, should want for her wishes to be carried out. And right now, the courts found that *her* wishes would be to stop medical treatment, including feeding. Now, if anyone out there has a better method for determining *HER* wishes, great. I really, honestly, truly, want to know, but a better way of finding out her wishes falls into the last paragraph's level of wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
So, what do "liberals" want? For her to be able to refuse further medical treatment, and yes, this means, allowed to die, since nothing but medical intervention will save her. And yes, this means dying of starvation and dehydration. If she were bleeding and refused medical treatment, it would mean she'd bleed to death; if she had terminal-if-untreated-cancer and refused treatment, it would mean she'd die of cancer.
It doesn't matter if some people insist that she wouldn't want this; the courts have done their damnedest to figure out what she would want, and they are as certain as they can be that refusing further treatment is what she'd want.
Do I want her to die?
No. But I don't want anyone to force her to take treatment she would refuse. Not even her parents, no matter how much it hurts to see her parents suffer because of her suffering and death.
It hurts, sure, but to recall a particular quote, "freedom is not pretty."
This is a nasty piece of questioning, and it proves that the poor woman has, in many people's minds, become nothing more than a weapon to be used in a despicable partisan battle.
However, let me make clear what I think any person of *any* political persuasion should want for Terri Schiavo.
You should want her wishes regarding her medical care to be carried out.
*Not* her parents' wishes, however heartwrenching it might be for her parents if Terri would not want medical care to continue.
Being fed through a feeding tube is a medical procedure; you're allowed to say "no". If someone feeds you through a feeding tube when you've refused, that person is assaulting your body and your freedom. Now, there are exceptions, just as there are in all circumstances. However, those exceptions do not include "your parents insist you really would want this, in the face of evidence that you would not."
Do I want her to die? No, I want her to wake up with a miraculously restored cerebral cortex - hers is currently completely gone, or so close to that as makes no difference - and have a similarly miraculous solution to all the awkwardness this would entail, and go on to live a full and happy life. While we're at it, I want world peace, an end to world hunger, and a whole bunch of other things. Oh, yeah, and enough money to put Chris through college, put into a trust fund that can only be accessed if she actually *goes* to college. Give me enough miraculous wishes, I might even come up with something for myself... but I digress.
Everyone, liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, or any other political designation you can come up with, should want for her wishes to be carried out. And right now, the courts found that *her* wishes would be to stop medical treatment, including feeding. Now, if anyone out there has a better method for determining *HER* wishes, great. I really, honestly, truly, want to know, but a better way of finding out her wishes falls into the last paragraph's level of wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
So, what do "liberals" want? For her to be able to refuse further medical treatment, and yes, this means, allowed to die, since nothing but medical intervention will save her. And yes, this means dying of starvation and dehydration. If she were bleeding and refused medical treatment, it would mean she'd bleed to death; if she had terminal-if-untreated-cancer and refused treatment, it would mean she'd die of cancer.
It doesn't matter if some people insist that she wouldn't want this; the courts have done their damnedest to figure out what she would want, and they are as certain as they can be that refusing further treatment is what she'd want.
Do I want her to die?
No. But I don't want anyone to force her to take treatment she would refuse. Not even her parents, no matter how much it hurts to see her parents suffer because of her suffering and death.
It hurts, sure, but to recall a particular quote, "freedom is not pretty."
Since some people don't understand ...
Mar. 25th, 2005 03:40 pmI've seen more than a few things asking why "liberals" what Terri Schiavo to die.
This is a nasty piece of questioning, and it proves that the poor woman has, in many people's minds, become nothing more than a weapon to be used in a despicable partisan battle.
However, let me make clear what I think any person of *any* political persuasion should want for Terri Schiavo.
You should want her wishes regarding her medical care to be carried out.
*Not* her parents' wishes, however heartwrenching it might be for her parents if Terri would not want medical care to continue.
Being fed through a feeding tube is a medical procedure; you're allowed to say "no". If someone feeds you through a feeding tube when you've refused, that person is assaulting your body and your freedom. Now, there are exceptions, just as there are in all circumstances. However, those exceptions do not include "your parents insist you really would want this, in the face of evidence that you would not."
Do I want her to die? No, I want her to wake up with a miraculously restored cerebral cortex - hers is currently completely gone, or so close to that as makes no difference - and have a similarly miraculous solution to all the awkwardness this would entail, and go on to live a full and happy life. While we're at it, I want world peace, an end to world hunger, and a whole bunch of other things. Oh, yeah, and enough money to put Chris through college, put into a trust fund that can only be accessed if she actually *goes* to college. Give me enough miraculous wishes, I might even come up with something for myself... but I digress.
Everyone, liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, or any other political designation you can come up with, should want for her wishes to be carried out. And right now, the courts found that *her* wishes would be to stop medical treatment, including feeding. Now, if anyone out there has a better method for determining *HER* wishes, great. I really, honestly, truly, want to know, but a better way of finding out her wishes falls into the last paragraph's level of wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
So, what do "liberals" want? For her to be able to refuse further medical treatment, and yes, this means, allowed to die, since nothing but medical intervention will save her. And yes, this means dying of starvation and dehydration. If she were bleeding and refused medical treatment, it would mean she'd bleed to death; if she had terminal-if-untreated-cancer and refused treatment, it would mean she'd die of cancer.
It doesn't matter if some people insist that she wouldn't want this; the courts have done their damnedest to figure out what she would want, and they are as certain as they can be that refusing further treatment is what she'd want.
Do I want her to die?
No. But I don't want anyone to force her to take treatment she would refuse. Not even her parents, no matter how much it hurts to see her parents suffer because of her suffering and death.
It hurts, sure, but to recall a particular quote, "freedom is not pretty."
This is a nasty piece of questioning, and it proves that the poor woman has, in many people's minds, become nothing more than a weapon to be used in a despicable partisan battle.
However, let me make clear what I think any person of *any* political persuasion should want for Terri Schiavo.
You should want her wishes regarding her medical care to be carried out.
*Not* her parents' wishes, however heartwrenching it might be for her parents if Terri would not want medical care to continue.
Being fed through a feeding tube is a medical procedure; you're allowed to say "no". If someone feeds you through a feeding tube when you've refused, that person is assaulting your body and your freedom. Now, there are exceptions, just as there are in all circumstances. However, those exceptions do not include "your parents insist you really would want this, in the face of evidence that you would not."
Do I want her to die? No, I want her to wake up with a miraculously restored cerebral cortex - hers is currently completely gone, or so close to that as makes no difference - and have a similarly miraculous solution to all the awkwardness this would entail, and go on to live a full and happy life. While we're at it, I want world peace, an end to world hunger, and a whole bunch of other things. Oh, yeah, and enough money to put Chris through college, put into a trust fund that can only be accessed if she actually *goes* to college. Give me enough miraculous wishes, I might even come up with something for myself... but I digress.
Everyone, liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, or any other political designation you can come up with, should want for her wishes to be carried out. And right now, the courts found that *her* wishes would be to stop medical treatment, including feeding. Now, if anyone out there has a better method for determining *HER* wishes, great. I really, honestly, truly, want to know, but a better way of finding out her wishes falls into the last paragraph's level of wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
So, what do "liberals" want? For her to be able to refuse further medical treatment, and yes, this means, allowed to die, since nothing but medical intervention will save her. And yes, this means dying of starvation and dehydration. If she were bleeding and refused medical treatment, it would mean she'd bleed to death; if she had terminal-if-untreated-cancer and refused treatment, it would mean she'd die of cancer.
It doesn't matter if some people insist that she wouldn't want this; the courts have done their damnedest to figure out what she would want, and they are as certain as they can be that refusing further treatment is what she'd want.
Do I want her to die?
No. But I don't want anyone to force her to take treatment she would refuse. Not even her parents, no matter how much it hurts to see her parents suffer because of her suffering and death.
It hurts, sure, but to recall a particular quote, "freedom is not pretty."