Barack Obama Would Take Back Vote Helping Terri Schiavo Avoid Euthanasia

[Wretched Excess]

I refuse to feel about this issue.  feeling about situations of this nature won't help you understand them.

Well, mine was a pretty complete analysis.  The spouse had the legal and moral right to make the decision he did.  He said that Terri told him what her final wishes were and there is no one to say otherwise.  The fact people didn't like him or his actions doesn't trump the fundamental underlying standards.

I am not really going to come back to this (unless someone PMs me and requests it).  It is clearly going in circles and nothing said has undermined my arguments.

it was pointless;  the legality is plain to everyone that can read.  it simply isn't where the heart of this question, and the only issue actually worth discussing, is to be found. 

but yes, we are all aware that you are very proud of your argument, and your participation in this discussion.  we will see if someone is unable to endure your absence from it, and is compelled to "request" you via PM.

[Lauri]

I don't want to sound like I don't have any compassion for the terminally ill and the families who watch them suffer, because I do.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Terry Schiavo was not dying of a terminal illness, she was a disabled woman.  I feel that is what distinguishes this case from others that involve a terminally ill family member. 

that's true, but a really crucial point here is that nobody knows what she told her husband. most of us have had those conversations; "honey, just let me go.. I dont want to be a vegetable" ..

since we cant ever know what they discussed, or didnt discuss, it really is up to him, as her next of kin, to make the decisions.

if she was about to divorce the guy and people around her knew it, they should have spoken up and fought his role in her care.

it seems to me the parents, with their good intentions, made a really sad case, pretty ugly.

Terri was not going to get better or become independant again and I can only assume the husband knew that after ten years.. maybe he thought she had suffered enough?

i really have no clue.. but Congress getting involved in a private family matter was scary to me. I dont want them doing that on such an intimate level with Americans.

I hate to be walking in on this discussion late...

Laurie, that sums up about how I felt about the Schiavo ordeal when it was going on.  I felt for all parties involved but ultimately didn't feel it was right for the federal government to be involved. 

I refuse to feel about this issue.  feeling about situations of this nature won't help you understand them.

well, i cant help you there... in matters such as this, emotions run high and our feelings supercede what the laws say is ok.

if my loved one is lying in a vegetative state, to me that means as a family you have a decision to make. let them go, or continue the vigil for the rest of their unnatural lives.

i dont believe God wants us to lay in a bed for 30 or 40 years with no will of our own to direct our lives. she was a pretty young woman who could have easily outlived her parents. then what?

[Duke Nukum]

ARRRRGGFGGGGghhhhhh!!1!!!! She was a disabled woman and her husband wanted to kill her! She was not terminally ill.

I swear I am going to have a stroke WE. 

they starved her to death.

I wasn't sure I heard it right in the first broadcast of the debate, and caught it on the rebroadcast.  and it was such a bizarre thing to say, that I wanted to follow up on it.  it turns out he meant it.

They allowed her to pass.  It was her wish (as it would be mine).  If I was in her brain dead situation, it would PISS ME OFF that strangers would interfere with my spoken desires to my wife (let me go).  The law allows the spouse to make this decision.  It is a bright line rule.

But from Shaivo, we have learned to make our intent known in writing -- so it is not all bad.

You presume that was her wish.  The only person who's word we have to go on is her husband's who may have been the one who put her into that state.

And people have come back from persistent vegetative states before.  Her family was willing to take care of her.  He won a huge cash settlement by claiming he would use the money to take care of her.