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i have written and deleted half a dozen rants about this today.
today congress intervened to save terri schiavo, who has been in what courts have ruled to be a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. her husband has been fighting with her parents for 7 years for her right to die, insisting she never wanted to be kept alive in such a state.
unfortunately, she never put any such wishes on paper.
i am appalled by the selfish, callous, hypocritical, shameless mongering of the republicans, all the way up to the president. mister bush, a long-time proponent of "fostering a culture of life" in the united states, has said that this compassion should extend to the disabled.
except, of course, if it's a mentally retarded black man on death row in texas, right, george?
the republican insistence on their right to decide who lives or dies, and shameless exploitation of terri schiavo and her family makes me want to throw things in rage. where is the health care needed to provide for her for the rest of her life? should her family go bankrupt paying someone to watch the machines that keep her alive and change her bedpan, wipe and bathe her? thank goodness if they do, their protections under bankruptcy laws have recently decreased significantly. this is so typical of the right to life platform: we want you alive, and we'll fight for it, but we bear no responsibility for your care.
at the same time, the notion of a woman starving to death at the behest of her doctors and husband breaks my heart. it doesn't make sense that a young woman can be so quickly and so completely incapacitated, and it's awful that the only life she has left is maintained with, at best, the mental capacity of an infant.
the bottom line, though, that i keep coming back to, is selfishness. it's selfish of the republicans to abuse her and her family to further their passion to invade my body. it's selfish of her parents to want to keep her here.
the only shame is that we are so afraid of death that we will not usher it in for her quickly and humanely. instead she will waste and wither. i hope with all my heart that she feels no pain.
let her go.
and you (yes, YOU), would you want to be kept alive if you were her? No, don't tell me. tell your family. in writing. now.
today congress intervened to save terri schiavo, who has been in what courts have ruled to be a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. her husband has been fighting with her parents for 7 years for her right to die, insisting she never wanted to be kept alive in such a state.
unfortunately, she never put any such wishes on paper.
i am appalled by the selfish, callous, hypocritical, shameless mongering of the republicans, all the way up to the president. mister bush, a long-time proponent of "fostering a culture of life" in the united states, has said that this compassion should extend to the disabled.
except, of course, if it's a mentally retarded black man on death row in texas, right, george?
the republican insistence on their right to decide who lives or dies, and shameless exploitation of terri schiavo and her family makes me want to throw things in rage. where is the health care needed to provide for her for the rest of her life? should her family go bankrupt paying someone to watch the machines that keep her alive and change her bedpan, wipe and bathe her? thank goodness if they do, their protections under bankruptcy laws have recently decreased significantly. this is so typical of the right to life platform: we want you alive, and we'll fight for it, but we bear no responsibility for your care.
at the same time, the notion of a woman starving to death at the behest of her doctors and husband breaks my heart. it doesn't make sense that a young woman can be so quickly and so completely incapacitated, and it's awful that the only life she has left is maintained with, at best, the mental capacity of an infant.
the bottom line, though, that i keep coming back to, is selfishness. it's selfish of the republicans to abuse her and her family to further their passion to invade my body. it's selfish of her parents to want to keep her here.
the only shame is that we are so afraid of death that we will not usher it in for her quickly and humanely. instead she will waste and wither. i hope with all my heart that she feels no pain.
let her go.
and you (yes, YOU), would you want to be kept alive if you were her? No, don't tell me. tell your family. in writing. now.