Raging On: The right to die

I think this topic has been talked about enough, but I feel like I need to interject my own opinion on the right to die. I have read all the stories, heard all the testimonies, and watched all the news reports on the Schiavo situation in Florida in disgust. Here we have 2 sides...on one side we have the husband who wants to put a woman in a perpetual vegatative state to rest. On the other, a family who can't let go that their daughter is going to die. Obviously by this statement alone you can see which side I sit on. Before I get a barrage of right-to-lifers flaming me with death-threats, hear me out.

If you were seriously injured in a car accident and your body was left immobile and you no longer had the ability to speak or eat, would you want to live? Would you seriously be content with sitting in a bed for the rest of your life, unable to feel anything or to talk...let alone eat your favorite foods? Picture this life...is this something you'd be content with? If you said yes, you are a fucking liar and are too wrapped up in your convictions to be honest with yourself. This woman is never going to be able to live a normal life. The parents, who selfishly want their daughter to be kept alive because they can't accept the fact that they were probably an indirect (or perhaps direct..I don't know their past) cause for their daughter to be obsessed with her weight and led her down the path to an eating disorder which, ultimately left her in the state she is in now. Their guilt has transformed into this dire need to keep her alive, like they are doing her a favor. They keep tauting that, with treatment, she will be able to lead a semi-normal life. Bullshit! I have heard countless doctors talk about how she will never recover, and that if they were so fucking worried about getting her out and about, why did they wait several years after her heart failure to start bringing it up, and that was only when Michael decided he no longer wanted to see his wife in that state.

In the end, Michael has the power to order the feeding tube out, and the family hates it. I have read claims the family has made that Michael wants her to die so that he can remarry, then they go on and tell him to divorce her and move on and they will take care of her. I think this is ludicrous. If he was wanting out from the marriage, he would have left years ago. Seriously, do you have any idea how much the hospital bill is? Guess who is going to be responsible for it when its all said and done? The husband. If remarrying was his goal, he would have jumped ship, leaving the bill for the family. This is not a selfish man. This is a man who has seen his very private life become fodder for the media, and now we have the government passing laws that, in the end, will prevent us from ever having "the right to die". I am telling you right now, if I was diagnosed with a disease that will leave me in a state much like hers, say MS, I'd kill myself as soon as the first symptoms appear. I would never subject myself to a life of pain and unable to do things on my own. That's a life I choose to leave. If that sends me to "hell", then I will gladly roast, because hell ain't a bad place compared to being a prisoner in your mind.

I wonder how Terri feels right now, knowing she is slowly dying. I bet she's relieved that soon she'll be asleep for good. I know its gotta be painful for the family, going in there, knowing she's dehydrating and can't do anything about it. It has to be really hard to sit there and know that your daughter/sister/cousin/whatever is wasting away and you can't help it. But its selfish to think that you should keep her on a machine for the rest of her "natural" life, binding her to a life in a bed. The claim to be devout Roman Catholics. Why are you trying to keep her in her mortal vessel when Paradise beckons? Let her go. Let the pain go. She will be walking with God very shortly. Isn't that better than an uncomfortable bed in a sterile hospital, surrounded by injury and death? Shindler's...let her go.

This has been Raging On, have a wonderful, rage-filled day. Please visit Relevent Irreverence, a new internet destination for all things artistic, musical, and disturbing.