I feel saddened by the Terri Shiavo
story. In all this public outcry from
the right and left Terri Shiavo is forced
to die without dignity. She can obviously not live with dignity. Did
she want to be the poster girl for
euthanasia? Did she want the Republican
epitimony of corruption, Tom Delay coming to her defense to keep her on a feeding tube? Did she really want baby Bush to leave his vacation in Crawford to come to her aid ? I don't think so.
"Opinions are like -------- everybody has
one" I saw this on a tee shirt once and
thought it was appropriate. I have as
much knowledge into the Terri Shiavo
case as most who have been interested
in this story, but I have no right to intervene in the decision or even attempt to sway anyone toward one side or the other. This is an extremely personal
decision placed upon the custodian of
Terri Shiavo's life.
I have asked my own conscience if
I would want to be left alive in a
vegetative state, dependent upon someone daily to wash me and empty a urine and colon bag
three or four times a day and feed me with a
feeding tube until the insurance company or
medicare or whoever and whatever decided I wasn't worth keeping alive anymore. I had to answer
NO. What possible purpose could there be for me to want to delay my inevitable death. I would want to end such a pathetic existence. If I was
dying from an incurable disease, with no possible
way of expressing myself other than
a few involuntary bodily functions, I
would be most anxious to leave such a
life and I would be totally embarassed and mortified
at the thought of ever insisting that some
assigned guardian have to make the decision for me. Just the thought of possibly being under the
guardianship of some sanctimonious, born again , moron insisting that my agony be prolonged, or that I should die a painful death by starvation and thirst because it is God's way, or having the President and the entire U.S Congress intervene in the decision to extend my wretched existence indefinately, is beyond my comprehension.
I would wish for a quick death. I would
wish for a painless death. I wish for
immortality so I may never know death
but the last thing anyone in their right
mind could wish for is a painful and
prolonged death. No loving spouse or
family member or merciful judge could
ever condone such a death. The passion
of Christ didn't mean that we have to
all be scourged and crucified or suffer
great pain at death. Those who have
read the life of Christ know that he
wanted his death to be as it was.
I am not Christ and as far a I can tell
no one else on earth is either. Not the
dying pope, nor the wealthiest evangelist
and definately not ( though many of his moronic followers want to believe he is) G.W. Bush. The Terri Shiavo story is
a sad and distainful episode that has insensed
the American consiousness. It has become a
magnifying glass clouded by a tear, upon the true collective soul of the American people.