Have You Learned Anything?
Almost a month ago, with the Terri Schiavo case heating up again, I advocated that people ought to get living wills. If Terri Schiavo had a living will, this case wouldn’t be in the news, and Congress wouldn’t be intervening, and we’d all be going on with our lives and talk about something else.
That being said, the site Blogs For Terri, which has been covering the Schiavo case, has in the past couple days received a huge spike in traffic.. Sadly, when their fifteen minutes are up, a great opportunity will have been wasted.
A month ago I also expressed my hope that Blogs For Terri would advocate people get living wills. Today, I don’t see anything on their site about them. No information helping people find out how to get one. No links to sites that help people generate their own…. nothing. As of this post, there are only two references to the term ‘living will’ on the main page, and they are in the context of the blog, and are not by any means an appeal for people to get their own livings wills drawn up.
Bloggers have gotten so heavily into this case, and only a few have been thinking outside the box. Lisa at Just A Girl In World has also promoted living wills and has ample personal experience to justify their neccesity.
Regardless of the outcome of this case, those of you who have been following Terri Schiavo and haven’t gotten a living will yet have proven that Terri’s fight has been in vain…
UPDATE: Blogs For Terri writes, “Some have written that the tragedy of Terri Schiavo’s situation is that she did not have a living will. From my perspective, the real tragedy is that she is being legally killed because her presumed “quality of life” does not meet an acceptable standard.” I say the real tragedy would be that if Terri Schiavo dies then EVERYTHING Blogs For Terri has worked for will be wasted because they have yet to use their popularity to promote living wills…
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Excellent post, Matt. As you know, I agree with this wholeheartedly. Whether Terri lives, or dies – - her legacy to this world will be . . . should be . . the vital importance of these documents in everyone’s lives.
Thank you for this post!
It’s true, if you’re on life support with no hope of returning no doctor who is still wants to practice is going to make the decision to have the plug pulled (and no one who posts here would if they were in the doctor’s shoes). If you don’t have a living will you then that means that everyone of these cases will get dragged into the courts again. Maybe Matt said this in another post–but this is the bottom line: None of us know what Terry Schiavo wants because she’s not able to communicate and left nothing in writing.
Side note – Happy Birthday, Matt!
another side note. I have a beef. With the state of the economy (which is doing fine btw). It brings to mind a question.
1982-2000 was the economic boom. But we only here 1990’s 1990’s?
no 1980’s. This despite the fact that reagan had to inherit the worst economy since the great depression and then boomed.
tax cuts
deregulation
free trade
greenspan fed
all came from REAGAN! the expansion in the 90’s started under bush sr and was seperated from the 80’s by 8 months!
Most of reagans reforms went into affect in the 1990’s. Why doesn’t reagan get the credit for it?! We are in an age of republicanism since 1980’s and had the best prosperity during the time. Speak out more about this GOPers!
The right wing blogs have gone awfully silent about the Terry Schiavo matter. President Bush has washed his hands of it and it looks like his brother is doing the same thing.
Jay, you sure? I think they’ve still been ridiculously vocal about it…
I think Terri’s husband is showing the ultimate in spousal abuse he is being allowed to legally kill, murder his wife and get away with it. Then he is taking her body away from her parents. He cares nothing for Terri– why did he not simply divorce her or would he lose the money and the money was for rehab and rehab he did not for Terri. I wish it were possible for him to be put to death by starvation and I consider myself a good christian and try to forgive, but his sin is unforgiveable. I should know I have been an abused woman and this is the ultimate abuse and betrayal. And know one really cares.
I just don’t know what to think about this. I mistrust the press – and so assume that I don’t really have all the facts.
But, after Florida courts gave custody of Elian Gonzalez to his US family Janet Reno sent machine gun carrying federal agents to rip him out of the house and send him back to Cuba – so the precedent for Federal force trumping Florida courts has already been set.
The fundies are making political hay of Schiavo, but if you’re a supporter of Bush because of muscular foreign policy, or tax cuts, or even that the Democrats don’t offer an alternative of any sort, then you probably are not wild about the whole situation. The polls show that. 70-80% of America is not a “liberal culture of death.”
This the deal: Terry Schiavo is brain dead. She has been for some time. I don’t believe these claims about her being cognizant because it would have come up sometime in the last 15 years of court battles. And to believe it also means you have to accept a conspiracy of Michael Schiavo, the medical establishment, the US court system, and the media to kill Terry Schiavo in cold blood.
Do we know what she would want? No. She didn’t leave a living will. Florida law says the next-of-kin decides and that’s Michael Schiavo and that’s what these “activist” judges have been affirming for the last 15 years. If either George or Jeb Bush were going to send in the troops they would have done it by now. They know a political hot potato when they see one and they aren’t going to act.
That’s the breaks. The rest of this is a tragic and intensely private matter for the Schiavos and the Schindlers, and has nothing to do with the rest of this country.
Jay,
I see you’re sincere – but you are wrong about her being “brain dead”. Look it up, really. She is brain damaged. If this method of death didn’t hurt, then why did they put her on a Morphine drip this weekend? And, why would a dead brain need pain killer anyways?
Again, what actual doctors testimony have YOU read and what makes you think you are qualified to make this decision? I have not read anything beyond the press reports and I know that I’m not qualified. No – this is not a simple argument. Its a tragedy in the making. A young wman is dieing. We are powerless to stop it and argue over whether we should even try. The politicians aside – there is no good from this death. And I won’t be happy when she dies. On the other hand – I would not wish to live like that. No, no simple answers to this one.
Kahn, I’m not going to split hairs over “brain-dead” or “brain-damaged”. And no, I’m no doctor, but I can’t accept that the medical establishment of Florida joined the courts in an evil bond of blood to fulfill Micheal Schiavo’s evil wish of forcing his wife to have a lingering painful death. That seems to be the theory being tossed around on talk radio and in the fundie circles.
In Texas, you can get the plug yanked on you if you can’t pay the bill. In Florida, your next of kin makes the decision. I don’t know what my states laws are, but if a family member hadn’t left a living will specifying they wanted the plug pulled I don’t think I could do it, and thank God I’ve never had to make that decision. I don’t wish that on anybody.
This is a law left up to the states. That is what it is. The fundies (I don’t want to say evangelicals since a majority of those who call themselves evangelicals don’t think the Feds should be involved) don’t like the decision that Michael Schiavo made and they don’t like that they can’t do anything about it. Politicians like Tom Delay and my state’s own Rick Santorum are just feeding red meat to their fundie bases in order to win their vote again in 2006.
i think a lot of peopel are kidding themselves when they say that terri schiavo is not PVS, or that she coudl come out of it.. or whatever… lets get real folks..
Matt, no – I’m afraid you’re right. I just hate to advocate death for an innocent person. But there is a difference between brain dead and brain damaged and this looks more like euthanasia than it does letting the body slip away for someone who is already gone.
I also don’t like the way advocates of life are characterized as “fundies”. It is such a narrow and ignorant view.
Well, it’s done. Terry Schiavo can rest in peace.
The Schiavos and the Schindlers can mourn. And the rest of us can get on with our lives.
amen Jay
Our United States government is a three-part representative system with checks and balances designed to preserve the basic rights of the people of this nation – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When any of these basic rights is threatened, it is the job of our elected representatives and judiciary to act collectively on the behalf of the people of this government. The Terri Schiavo case became a national concern that required a fresh judicial review to satisfy the concerns of fairness and justice for the American public. The U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate, and the President of the United States of America acted responsibly on behalf of a concerned nation to guarantee that a fair and just decision would be made when all of the available evidence and testimony were properly considered. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ignored the Congress, the Senate, and the President, refusing to acknowledge the need of the people of this nation for a governmental response to assure that the basic rights guaranteed to the people of this nation would continue to be protected by our three-part system of representative government. In so doing, the Supreme Court did not fulfill its obligation to the people of this nation. They refused to consider that once and for all, the question of fairness, liberty, and justice for all U.S. citizens could be resolved with regard to the Schiavo case. They refused to consider the severity and gravity of the national concern related to this case. What guarantee, then, do we the people have that our basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, will be protected? It is unconscionable to consider that greater harm could come to the people’s trust in this system of government by a fresh, honest, and open review of the Schiavo case. Instead, the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case has sparked a general discontent, distrust, and a growing belief that the current Supreme Court does not have the capacity to function as a representative unit of a government of, by, and for the people. At the very least, the Supreme Court could have maintained its integrity as a unit of government that will apply every conceivable means within its power to protect the basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to provide liberty and justice for all.
The Supreme Court usurped the right to “interpret” the U.S. Constitution. Of late however, it is longer interpreting anything – instead, it is adjusting interpretation to fit its own or popular views.
Examples: The 2nd Amendment. Research shows that the framers meant it to be absolute and to be an individual right. Or, the recent declaration that people under 18 can’t be executed. They even cited “international norms and laws”. What the heck?
The courts, from the lowest to the highest are out of control. Just as the Congress grew in power after Watergate to counter the real threat to the union that Nixon had posed, we owe it to ourselves to counter this current discount of Constitutional intent and individual rights by the Supreme Court. If the Constitution is broken – lets fix it. But not fix it with the input of 9 people. iamcitizen – thanks. I think you nailed it with that post.
Hey Matt, I just fell into this post; I’m not going to read the comments because I already spotted the word “fundie” and decided they’re not worth the BP spike.
Anyway, yeah, you’re right about the living will thing. In fact, some days after Terri died, there was even a post up there saying something about living wills being WRONG. Needless to say, that was about the last thing I read there until today. (Err…yesterday, I guess.) After that, I decided there wasn’t room there for me to post any more (again, until yesterday, and I quickly posted and disappeared).
I don’t know what to say about the position held by the others there, but as we’ve discussed elsewhere, a LOT of judgemental errors were made, in my opinion. So anyway, I’m glad I stumbled onto this post to remind me to update MY blog with links to living will information.