Bush-whacking euthanasia
October 22, 2003 ~ 2:51 p.m.
There must be some heavy Christian guilt on the part of the Bush family. I�m not talking about the Iraq war. I�m talking about their penchant for a right-wing version of the nanny state.
On Tuesday, a comatose, terminally ill patient, Terri Schiavo, began receiving liquids to rehydrate her. Her feeding tube was removed last week and she has displayed positive signs of organ failure. She has been in a vegetative state since 1990 when her heart stopped; she has suffered brain damage as a result of this. Despite the final proof of her wasting condition�the organ failure�Florida Governor Jeb Bush ordered the hospital to provide fluids to Schiavo.
Schiavo�s husband, Michael, commented that Terri was �literally abducted from her deathbed,� while his attorney said, �It was just an absolute trampling of her personal rights and her dignity. We believe that a court sooner or later, we hope sooner, will find this law to be unconstitutional.�
I believe it was unconstitutional. This legislation was crammed through at the 11th hour and the move looks very doubtful when held up against the litmus test of liberty that is the Constitution.
The decision could reach historic proportions. Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen Grimes said of the case, �It presents a new legal issue that I�ve never heard of.�
It must be said that Schiavo�s parents have battled to keep her alive. The Legislature voted by a large majority to save Terri and Bush signed the measure to rehydrate the terminally ill woman.
It does not matter that there is a nasty medical malpractice suit behind the whole Schiavo ordeal, or that her husband Michael dated and eventually had children by another woman, or that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review on the matter. The case is whether or not it is humane to deny a terminally ill patient the release they deserve.
I could understand deliberately keeping a member of Al-Qaeda, after he�s had all his limbs blown off, alive. No problem there. But, in the case of Terri Schiavo, we�re talking about an actual human being.
Why do we insist on keeping human vegetables alive? For the sake of families who refuse to see the truth about their loved ones, haplessly clinging on to hope? To be used as a political football such as Jeb Bush has done? What is going on?
Yes, we can put animals to death when they suffer but not our own kind. All in the name of dogma�religion�that many people don�t even practice. This is not right.
In many ways, the tendency of the Bushes, both Jeb and Dubya, to moralize, intimidate me. As a conservative, I approve of most of what the current administration does, but both guys are dipping into pious territory.
The Bush administration is clearly penalizing against marijuana users, discouraging and even trying to block medical marijuana legalization, despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling in favor of the practice (at least as it is presented in theory), and furthering a costly War on Drugs (if you want a war to complain about, forget Iraq. This is much bigger and has cost us a hell of a lot more lives.) The administration is also in league with the Florida governor insofar as euthanasia goes. Because God says no to killing, we must keep a living vegetable alive, even just to continue to sit in bed and suffer.
If that is so wrong, how come capital punishment enjoys such support among conservatives? Don�t misunderstand me: the death penalty is quite appropriate action to take against murderers and has always enjoyed my support, but how on earth is it more right to put a killer to death than an innocent comatose patient with no hope of recovery and leading a normal, fulfilling life whatsoever? You might argue that one is a retribution killing and the other is a mercy killing. Well�so what? You�d rather a society that considers killing for revenge fine, but to mercifully end the life of the terminally ill is not?
Enough of Bush administration�s moralizing. This is nanny state nonsense�don�t take drugs and don�t mercy kill, because we don�t approve and you will be punished�as perpetrated by the Right.
In Terri Schiavo�s case, give her liberty and give her death.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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