CRUEL, CRUEL, CRUEL
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Never again should anyone be compelled to die of thirst or starvation. Never again. It is a slow, horrible, cruel death.
Personally, I don't think Terri Schiavo will last much longer. When they say it takes a week or two to die of thirst, that is the maximum possible. She has been through this twice before. There is system damage each time. Her tongue is already swelling. She cannot be expected to do as well this time. We can only keep trying to save her life, and keep praying for her.
But looking down the road, there are a few things that need to come out of Terri's ordeal, for all future Terri's and their families. Hopefully, they can be done in time to save her life.
One, we need to have laws that prohibit taking any life, for any reason, by withholding water and food. That is too long, hard and cruel a death to be inflicted by any civilized people on anyone.
Two, we need to have laws that take guardianship away from spouses who have moved on with their lives. In that case, they should no longer be trusted with life and death decisions for the incapicitated spouse, especially if there is a blood relative willing to take on that responsibility. (Think about that. If you became incapacitated and your spouse moved on to someone else, would you still want your spouse to be the one to decide whether you lived or died?)
Three, our court system needs to have a better, easier way to review the FACTS of a case such as Terri's, as opposed to the PROCESS.
Finally, we need to do these things now, and let our lawmakers know that is what we insist on, while they are fresh on our minds.
Congress and state legislators, listen!
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Never again should anyone be compelled to die of thirst or starvation. Never again. It is a slow, horrible, cruel death.
Personally, I don't think Terri Schiavo will last much longer. When they say it takes a week or two to die of thirst, that is the maximum possible. She has been through this twice before. There is system damage each time. Her tongue is already swelling. She cannot be expected to do as well this time. We can only keep trying to save her life, and keep praying for her.
But looking down the road, there are a few things that need to come out of Terri's ordeal, for all future Terri's and their families. Hopefully, they can be done in time to save her life.
One, we need to have laws that prohibit taking any life, for any reason, by withholding water and food. That is too long, hard and cruel a death to be inflicted by any civilized people on anyone.
Two, we need to have laws that take guardianship away from spouses who have moved on with their lives. In that case, they should no longer be trusted with life and death decisions for the incapicitated spouse, especially if there is a blood relative willing to take on that responsibility. (Think about that. If you became incapacitated and your spouse moved on to someone else, would you still want your spouse to be the one to decide whether you lived or died?)
Three, our court system needs to have a better, easier way to review the FACTS of a case such as Terri's, as opposed to the PROCESS.
Finally, we need to do these things now, and let our lawmakers know that is what we insist on, while they are fresh on our minds.
Congress and state legislators, listen!
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
posted by Old Neocon at 11:28 AM
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