[Peace-discuss] Liberals and Schiavo

[Brian Hagy]

I agree and disagree with Carl.  I agree that Schiavo wasn't dying.  It's 
hard for the dead to die.  Her ability to choose, to express in any form 
any desire, died 15 years ago.  Numerous people have clinically observed 
her for 15 years, and not one of them ever brought forth the remotest 
hope that she was attempting to choose or make a decision.  Life, by my 
definition, revolves around that core ability, that of decision making, 
in whatever form by whatever means.  For me, since Schiavo no longer 
indicated the ability to make a decision, she was dead (brain dead, if not 
in body...and not even in a zombie way, because the folklore of zombies 
is that even they make choices...what to eat, etc.) I disagree with Carl 
because she was dying, as is everyone who is ever born.  Living is the 
ability to draw out the dying process for as long as possible.

For me, the issue is not whether Schiavo should or should not have had the 
feeding tube taken out (or for that matter, put in), but whether or not 
the government should be involved at all in the death process.

Ok, the right to LIFE liberty and the pursuit of happiness is protected by 
the government (but somehow the pursuit of happiness deosn't apply to gays 
and lesbians, it seems).  but the right to life shouldn't override the 
equally necessary right to die fact of life.  the tube was removed, and 
nature took it's course.  i would say "God" took her, but from my 
religious eyes, "God" took her 15 years ago, and man interfered with that.

Folks who know me know that i am intensely involved with disability 
rights.  i have dedicated 11 years of my life to supporting people with 
developmental disabilities, including individuals diagnosed as "severe and 
profound".  The difference for me between "severe and profound" and 
"persistant vegetative state" is that "severe and profound" individuals 
maintain a system of communication, in their own form, and are able to 
repeat it.  folks diagnosed as in a "persistant vegetative state" do not. 
In spite of what I have read, this for me was not a disability rights 
issue.  It was a government involvement issue.  The "culture of life" 
rhetoric coming from the federal institution makes zero sense if held 
against invading Iraq.

Ok, nuf said from me.