Is it really living to be kept alive by artificial means for 15 years? I’ll say it here and now: If I’m ever in a vegetative state like Terri Schiavo, I would not want my brain-dead body to go on without me. That is not living and that is by no means sustaining “the sanctity of human life,” as Republicans in Congress and Bush like to believe. Schiavo stopped experiencing life long ago.
The New York Times / Congress Passes and Bush Signs Legislation on Schiavo Case:
The House gave final Congressional approval early today to legislation that would allow a federal court to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, and the measure was signed quickly at the White House by President Bush, who flew back to Washington from his Texas ranch on Sunday.
I don’t always agree with Andrew Sullivan, but he nails it on the head with this one:
So it is now the federal government’s role to micro-manage baseball and to prevent a single Florida woman who is trapped in a living hell from dying with dignity. We’re getting to the point when conservatism has become a political philosophy that believes that government – at the most distant level – has the right to intervene in almost anything to achieve the right solution. Today’s conservatism is becoming yesterday’s liberalism.
[ Sullivan quote via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire ]
1 response so far ↓
1 jen a. // Mar 21, 2005 at 10:19 am
interesting take on this on daily kos.
the texas futile care law, passed in 1999 and signed by then governor you-know-who… gives hospitals the authority to discontinue treatment if doctors and ethics committee deem it ‘futile’– even against the wishes of the patient’s family:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3087387
a related article attempts to explain why this is different from the schiavo case. not very convincing, in my opinion…
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3094518