My $.02 on the Schiavo case
Mar. 21st, 2005 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsThere's been a lot of outrage across my f-list over the Schiavo case today, pointing out how this blows away state's rights, individual rights, sanctity of marriage, et al. As far as I can tell, only the bloggers are picking up on how Bush is signing into law an attempt to keep a white woman alive while none of the newspapers discuss how he also signed into law the ability to yank a poor black baby off its respirator. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scottbateman summed that up nicely.)
Since everyone is is covering the highlights, I'm just going to say one piece of advice and ask one really grim question.
The Advice
Living Wills and Letters of Attorney (you need both forms; one to say that you want the plug pulled and one to give a specific person the right to pull it) are available in kit form at every office supply store in town. Go spend the $10 for piece of mind - and remember to put a series of names on that Letter of Attorney in case whatever incapacitates you also incapacitates them. As in: "In the event I cannot make decisions for myself, my spouse will make all decisions for me. In the event that my spouse is likewise incapacitated AND ONLY IN THAT EVENT, then the decisions will be made by..." etc. For example, my cascade goes brother-father-mother-cousin. That way, I don't need to go write a new one if something happens, and the odds of all of those people being injured at once are low. But in each case, each person named has sole right to decision making, so that there hopefully will be no fights between brother, parents, and cousin. And if there are... well, my wishes are known. They can be disregarded, but I've done what I can to not be a breathing football.
The Ugly Question
Are Terri's mother and sister really acting out of love for Terri or love of being a radical right media darling? And how trapped are they by that iconography - because if they give up now, won't their supporters turn on them like rabid dogs? This is not a country - and the radical right is not a group - that appreciates humanity in their icons. We turn on them fast when they don't hold up their end of the bargain. Jessie Lynch at least had the ability to say "I was never a famewhore, people did that to me, kindly knock it off now" and I'm sure she took her lumps for it. When people DO ask in the first place, I'm sure they end up riding a tiger.
scottbateman summed that up nicely.)Since everyone is is covering the highlights, I'm just going to say one piece of advice and ask one really grim question.
The Advice
Living Wills and Letters of Attorney (you need both forms; one to say that you want the plug pulled and one to give a specific person the right to pull it) are available in kit form at every office supply store in town. Go spend the $10 for piece of mind - and remember to put a series of names on that Letter of Attorney in case whatever incapacitates you also incapacitates them. As in: "In the event I cannot make decisions for myself, my spouse will make all decisions for me. In the event that my spouse is likewise incapacitated AND ONLY IN THAT EVENT, then the decisions will be made by..." etc. For example, my cascade goes brother-father-mother-cousin. That way, I don't need to go write a new one if something happens, and the odds of all of those people being injured at once are low. But in each case, each person named has sole right to decision making, so that there hopefully will be no fights between brother, parents, and cousin. And if there are... well, my wishes are known. They can be disregarded, but I've done what I can to not be a breathing football.
The Ugly Question
Are Terri's mother and sister really acting out of love for Terri or love of being a radical right media darling? And how trapped are they by that iconography - because if they give up now, won't their supporters turn on them like rabid dogs? This is not a country - and the radical right is not a group - that appreciates humanity in their icons. We turn on them fast when they don't hold up their end of the bargain. Jessie Lynch at least had the ability to say "I was never a famewhore, people did that to me, kindly knock it off now" and I'm sure she took her lumps for it. When people DO ask in the first place, I'm sure they end up riding a tiger.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-22 02:29 am (UTC)I don't know what the mother and sister are thinking. I had half a feeling that they were trying to convince themselves that she would somehow be returned to them. Or that they just can't let go. And then the right wing vultures moved in to grandstand. But I don't know.
If the right wing is so worried about maintaining life, they should be working real hard to restore all cuts to Medicaid and be hammering out ideas for nation-wide health insurance so no one misses out on health care because they can't afford it. But it's not about valuing life, it's about power.
I fear we're moving toward a time where health care is only going to be for the well-to-do. Which is real trouble. Serious illness has a way of building up in such situations and then turning into a plague that devours even the well-to-do. TB is a good example of that.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-22 01:21 pm (UTC)And that frightens and saddens me beyond the ability of tongue to tell.
We are moving toward a time when most basic rights are only for the well-to-do, and it's going to take a massive tragedy to turn the pendulum back. Which will happen, both the tragedy and the pendulum swing. It's a historical given.