Terri Schiavo

What to say about the Terri Schiavo episode which hasn't already been said? Probably not too much.

My own personal position shouldn't really surprise any of my regular readers: I'm in favor of the right to die, and of physician-assisted suicide. While I don't think it's something to take lightly, it's not at all hard to imagine cases where I'd want to have my life terminated because continuing is either pointless (e.g., I'm brain-dead) or just too painful to be worth it.

The Schiavo case is difficult precisely because we don't know what's really going on inside her head, and we don't know - really - what her own wishes and feeling on the matter would be. I certainly don't think that we should have a default "presumption of life" in instances like this. The notion that we may be condemning her to decades of misery is exactly why the case is so difficult.

While I admit to being glad that it appears that she's going to be able to finally die, and being downright gleeful that the band of self-serving assholes in Congress and the White House who moved to try to prevent this are going to come out on the losing end, it's not really a victory to be cheerful of. It's the best outcome of the worst situation, and it's sad that there's a debate about this at all.

I'm not particularly wedded to the notion that a spouse should have the final say in what should be done in a case like this, rather than a parent. That's not really the issue, in my eyes (although it is a key legal issue). I approve that the husband is the decision-maker here because I feel that his outlook and judgment is the correct and compassionate one.

Seeing Michael Schiavo vilified has been pretty nauseating. A man shouldn't have to be a saint to be qualified to make a decision like this. Everything I've read has indicated that he's gone above and beyond the call, and that we all should hope to behave as well if we're ever in a situation like this. I hope he gets some peace and happiness when this is all over.

It is rather ridiculous that the twists and turns of the law result in Terri Schiavo starving to death. If ever there was a call for clean, doctor-assistant suicide, this is it. That it's not available here is just barbaric.

It's impossible to write about this issue without wielding some pretty heated rhetoric.

For myself, a benchmark I've considered in the past is: Would I still be able to read? If I went either blind or deaf then I think I would be able to get by. If I went both blind and deaf, I think it would be very hard going, and it's hard to see that I'd want to do so. But if either my brain or my body had so deteriorated that I couldn't read anymore, and couldn't communicate on a reasonably adult level, I think I'd prefer to be euthanized. I think at that point most of what I'd live for would be out of reach.

Certainly I would not want to continue living if I were in Terri Schiavo's condition. Especially not for the 15 years through which she's been soldiering on.

And the moral of the story is: When your position directly allies you with Randall Terry, then you've chosen the wrong side. He may not be an exemplar of everything that's wrong with this country, but he's certainly trying to cover as many bases as he can.