I imagine I'm going to lose some friends and make some foes on this one.
Quite frankly, I don't give a shit.
This is about Terry Schiavo, but not just about her. She's just the focal point of a much larger cultural conflict, one I can no longer sit on the sidelines about. I speak of the hypocrisy, rot, and decay that infests the cultural mindset of the left (and quite a few Libertarians) when it comes to the value of human life. Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about death during the war, these same people are proving themselves to essentially be a bunch of eugenicists. Whether they admit it or not, they've all become cheerleaders on the sidelines for Terry Schiavo's death. They feign sensitivity about her plight, but most of their sympathy seems to go to her barbarian husband, Michael Schiavo, who is intent on having her killed via slow torture. And starvation is indeed the slowest kind of torture, folks. Even crucifixion is a faster way of killing someone. This guy is a real piece of work. He knows if he asks for an active killing (such as a lethal injection), the courts likely won't accomodate him. No one wants to actually be pinned with the "credit" for this woman's death. But letting "nature take it's course"? Ahhh, now that way they figure the blame can't be put on anyone in particular.
Let me go right ahead and invoke Godwin's Law in record time here. This whole argument for killing her is based on her "quality of life", and that argument to justify whether someone can live or die is very much a Nazi mindset. They justified a lot of death through the quality of life and productive life arguments. Never forget, before they started trucking Jews off to be killed en mass, they first rounded up the "imbeciles" and "cripples" in Germany and Austria, where they all recieved one bullet, straight to the head, no waiting, courtesy of the Third Reich.
That's where we may be headed, when a woman who is NOT BRAIN DEAD, who can breath on her own, who can respond to stimuli, can, with the force of law, be slowly and horribly starved to death. The lack of water will kill her before the lack of food. Terry Schiavo will dehydrate to death. Her mouth, and then skin, will crack and peel and bleed, very painfully. Over a period of days, she will slowly die, while experiencing excruciating agony and thirst. You people that are supporting this, you'd damn well better realize the PRACTICAL implications of your support. She's not going to go easily, people. She's going to go in one of the most horrible ways possible. If you did this to a dog, you'd be sent to prison for years. But hey...Terry's quality of life will no longer be an issue, eh? Because right now, let me assure you, her quality of life sucks pretty bad. Hunger and thirst will do that to you.
As for Michael Schiavo, well, words do him an injustice. I'd call him a monster, but that's just too damn generic. Let's go over those wedding vows, shall we Michael? What part of "in SICKNESS and in health" did you miss? Looks like you understood the "till death do you part" section though. Maybe that's ok, because apparently some of the doctors involved here missed the "first, do no harm" part of the their oath too. Of course, you wont do many interviews, Mike. I've noticed that you don't like to talk about that fat malpractice award you got (though I'm still trying to see which doctor was at fault for Terry's condition; funny, I thought she collapsed at YOUR residence, Mike?). Tell me something, Mike; do you want the world to see that you inherit the money if Terri dies? I mean, her parents have repeatedly have asked to be given custody, but you keep denying them. But you wont divorce her, Mike. Nope, you refuse.
And yet you insist she be put to death.
If you can't see reason for suspicion right there, well, then YOU'RE the moron, Mike. Oh, and her parents say you're full of shit on the death wish thing. She's a devout Catholic. Suicide is a mortal sin, and even the death penalty is oppossed. She was raised that way, and apparently stayed devout until she died. Count me in as one more person that doesn't believe you about her supposed wish to die. Maybe it has something to do with Terry's parents' suspicion that you had something to do with her collapse, including allegations of abuse? Her parents seem to think you may have had a history of knocking her around when she had, ehh, better quality of life. If she ever DOES start speaking again, perhaps it just wouldn't do for her to testify in court?
You've got plenty of supporters though, Mike, especially here on Slashdot, where it's cool to be hip and edgy and speak of life cheaply. Ever listen to the Who, Mike? I'm sure you have. "Hope I die before I get old" goes over just fine around these parts. Problem is, a lot of slashdotters hope everyone else dies before they get old too. They've seen too many modern-samurai death-honor-code anime flicks around here. And they're pretty cool with knocking off people with bad quality of life here. I'd like to kindly remind them that, as many are Star Trek:TNG fans, please recall the episode where a blind Geordi LaForge told the genetic engineering colony "who the hell are you to decide what kind of contribution I can make?".
Back to those bastions of human kindness, the Nazis, for a second; now that we're being positively Himmler-like in the courts, do we carry out the rest of their philosophy too? Let's start with going to the maternity wards, rounding up all of the babies with Downs Syndrome and other birth defects, and let's start snuffing them. My nephew was just diagnosed with autism yesterday. My family should do it's part and toss him on the heap to, eh? If we do it now, they won't grow into expensive burdens on society. And their quality of life will just suck, you know. Before you start saying "how ridiculous, no one would do that", be advised that they're already doing it over in the Netherlands. And we know how much the left (and again, Libertarians) admire the wise and progressive Dutch. We should be just like them.
UPDATE:
As mentioned before, Terry and her family are Catholic, and the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano released a damning editorial today, that sums up my arguments nicely:
"She has no possibility of being 'restored' to a 'normal' life. Therefore Terri Schiavo must die," the editorial began. "This is ... the absurd and terrifying reason" for the judge's decision, it added.
