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arguchikman, i am so offended by the right-to-lifers swarming all over the terri schiavo case. court after court and doctor after doctor have affirmed that she is in persistent vegetative state, and that she clearly expressed the wish, prior to her collapse, that she did not want to be kept alive in such a state. the complete lack of rationality being displayed by her parents, the right-to-lifers praying outside of the hospice where terri is staying, and now both the florida congress and the u.s. congress...it just baffles me. everyone talks as if removing terri's feeding tube will be tantamount to "starving her to death," which is patently ridiculous. her brain's cortex is completely gone; she has nothing left but the brainstem at this point. she doesn't *feel* hunger. she doesn't *feel* anything because *she* is not there anymore. her parents have been appealing to every right-wing and religious group (getting money from all of them, i might add), claiming that terri might get better with therapy. and the right-wing moralist fundamentalists *love* a good media fight, so they play up the sentimental angle, appeal to that part of the human psyche that refuses to be rational when faced with an unpleasant, traumatic reality and a hard decision. her parents don't want to lose a child...so they refuse to admit that they already have, because her body is still "self-breathing."
so the news this morning is that the u.s. senate (?) has "invited" terri to testify before them concerning her case. this "invitation" makes it a crime for doctors to remove her feeding tube today--because you can't interfere with the health and well-being of a person who has been subpeona'ed by congress. well maybe congress will be able to work the "miracle" that terri's doctors have been unable to work for almost 15 years...after all, it's *illegal* not to testify before congress when you're "invited." i wonder what terri will say...
and people wonder why my head spins around if i even get *near* the entrance to a church. all this talk about how "sacred" human life is...but what about human dignity? what about a person's right to have their expressed wishes honored--even if they only expressed those wishes verbally, provided it can be legally established (as it has, more than once, in terri's case)?
so the news this morning is that the u.s. senate (?) has "invited" terri to testify before them concerning her case. this "invitation" makes it a crime for doctors to remove her feeding tube today--because you can't interfere with the health and well-being of a person who has been subpeona'ed by congress. well maybe congress will be able to work the "miracle" that terri's doctors have been unable to work for almost 15 years...after all, it's *illegal* not to testify before congress when you're "invited." i wonder what terri will say...
and people wonder why my head spins around if i even get *near* the entrance to a church. all this talk about how "sacred" human life is...but what about human dignity? what about a person's right to have their expressed wishes honored--even if they only expressed those wishes verbally, provided it can be legally established (as it has, more than once, in terri's case)?
