Post Mortem

Well, as we bear witness to the end of Terri Schiavo's life, did we learn anything?

How will we remember this person? I hope that she become synonymous with the problems of bulimia, rather than this right to die case. If we are so concerned with saving lives, we need to start with saving people who could fall victim to a similar fate.

We need to ensure that we maintain a living will, and ensure that everyone in our family knows what our exact wishes are.

Maybe, we will use this as a time to reflect on the need to do more in the neurosurgical research departments so that maybe at the onset of a persistive vegetative state, we can have some progress in have a roadmap toward any sort of recovery.

Both the parents and husband of Terri Schiavo have gone through a very tough time, and now are in mourning. They no longer need the circus of the media to continue this charade of following a story. Both parties need to have the space to mourn as they need to without the prying eyes of the public, and if not for them, then out of respect for Terri herself.

I don't see her as a public citizen. She didn't ask for people to even know her name. It has only been through the court system and the media circus that has played through the political system that has enabled this to occur. We can't fix the past. It's over. But we can do something about the future. As quick as politicians were to "politicize" this situation, I don't think we will see their same alacrity in doing anything more to save other people from a similar fate.

For those of you who feel that you need to place blame I say this! Go Away. Where were you 15 years ago? What did you do to save this person from being bulimic? There is plenty of blame to go around if that is what you chose to get out of her death, but we should consider something greater. Blame never solves the real problems.

In death, I hope this helps saves people from becoming victims of bulimia.
In death, I hope this sends out the message to young people to get a living will, or at least communicate to your friends and family very clearly, your final wishes.

The Government and the Right to Die

It seems that people who have a political motive in the Terri Schiavo case would have us view anyone who is involved in this right to die decision as a murder. I've heard the term, court sponsored murder used. Yet our government seems to be in the business of life and death decision making everyday.

The business of War, albeit messy, is one where the government can make a conscious decision to have members of the society give up their lives to support the greater good of the society. During this current war with Iraq, we have had over 1500, young and healthy Americans give up their life. They will never see their families again. They will never have another birthday.

When you look at the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in Washington DC, you see the vast number of names, and it is emotional and overwhelming.

But my point is that we can easily ask the youth of this great nation to make the ultimate sacrifice, in the name of ideology; freedom, democracy, the American way, yet we seem so wrenched when it comes to ending the life of a person who has been in a PVS for an inordinate amount of years.

I suppose I am just upset that the energy that was spent to try and save this one person is never used to save a greater amount of people. What about the homeless, the underinsured, or victims of violent crimes, etc...? But it seems that the US Government, specifically the legislature, that is happy to stop the business of government on behalf of a single person. I don't think that is right, unless the plan is to stop the business of government for every single case of its type. We have a court system that is designed to interpret the law, and it has done that many times over.

The other aspect of this whole right to die thing is that there are two sides of this debate, the right to life-rs, and the pro-choice communities.

I would imagine that the right to life side lives with a bit more hypocrisy than the pro-choice community, but none the less, they both have some. Right to life says life is precious, except in the case of the death penalty, then they say, fry 'em, and shooting/killing a doctor here or there seems to be part of the stamp of approval of the pro-life folk, as well as maintaining your dead pool online.

Now the pro-choice folks, say government stay out of my business, but then tend to walk the anti-death penalty line. Obviously the reason is to prevent innocent people from being executed. Yet there are times when justice is only served when the death penalty is carried out. While it is proven not be a deterrent for future criminal activity within the community, it does deter one person from committing that crime again.

The people have spoken, and overwhelmingly support the Florida courts rulings with the Terri Schiavo case. I agree with the majority on this one.