Thursday, March 31, 2005
Quality of Life
Terri Schiavo died today. I can't believe that this poor woman became the center of all this controversy over the past couple of weeks. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Terri Schiavo has been in a "persistent vegetative state" since 1990. Her husband believed that she would never have wanted to live like this and should have been allowed to die. However her parents wanted to prolong her "life" and won the support of several conservative Christian groups and, inevitably, George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress who quickly passed a bill allowing Terri's parents to take the case to Federal court for review.
Isn't it funny how Republicans are always saying how we need less government, yet they are constantly wanting the government to regulate morality?
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis, said after the vote, "In our public actions, we must build a culture of life that welcomes and defends all human life." Well, all human life except Iraqis or the gays, I guess. Eh, Jimmy? But I digress ...
The thing is I can sympathize with Terri's parents. We all find it hard to let go of our love ones and it is very easy to try to find a ray of hope that they will pull through something like this. I also I can't imagine how difficult it was for Terri's husband to make the decision to let her go and move on with his life. Hopefully now Terri's parents can do the same.
I realize that "quality of life" is subjective, but I just wouldn't want to be kept alive by machines... especially if it was not because there was actual hope of getting better but because somebody couldn't let me go.
Isn't it funny how Republicans are always saying how we need less government, yet they are constantly wanting the government to regulate morality?
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis, said after the vote, "In our public actions, we must build a culture of life that welcomes and defends all human life." Well, all human life except Iraqis or the gays, I guess. Eh, Jimmy? But I digress ...
The thing is I can sympathize with Terri's parents. We all find it hard to let go of our love ones and it is very easy to try to find a ray of hope that they will pull through something like this. I also I can't imagine how difficult it was for Terri's husband to make the decision to let her go and move on with his life. Hopefully now Terri's parents can do the same.
I realize that "quality of life" is subjective, but I just wouldn't want to be kept alive by machines... especially if it was not because there was actual hope of getting better but because somebody couldn't let me go.
