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Mar. 18th, 2005 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonLast-ditch bid in right-to-die case
Oh my gods. This is so indescribably wrong.
Let her die. Let her soul lose its shackles to the hopelessly broken shell, to the body which shall never, ever work again (as every single competent doctor brought in to assess her over the weeks, months and fifteen years of this case has testified). Set her free, and let her go on to whatever reward awaits her. And if there is any justice for her, the reward shall be sweet indeed for having been so terribly abused -- by her sad, ignorant parents, by people who value the appearance of physical life over genuinely living. By people who are really looking for a miracle to somehow justify their own faith, and prove the existence of their god, to quiet their own deep fears that the universe isn't the ordered, simple place their book tells them it is, that the universe truly is a place where their daughter, and they themselves, will eventually die, and there are no guarantees that it will be at a time or in a manner of their choosing. This is a sad, hopeless attempt by frightened people to control the uncontrollable, to deny what was, is and ever shall be the one thing none of us can control, our mortality. And grief, though true and powerful, doesn't excuse the terrible thing her parents are doing. For a week, a month, a year, grief is an excuse for their actions, for not wanting to let go of their loved one and move on. But this is fifteen years later. Fifteen. Years.
In this situation, it would be no less likely for their daughter to return from the dead than it would be for her to be suddenly "cured" of a persistent vegetative state, so let her die. If your god wants to raise her, he will. Have faith in what you say you believe. Certainly it's not that simple, it's hard, incredibly hard. I'm a parent, and I can only imagine what it would be like to see my child in this state, to desperately want to cling to any small shreds of hope. I'm sure her parents loved her, and don't want to let her go, and that on some level, they know in their hearts that there is no unbelievable miracle waiting to happen, that she is, really, truly, already gone. But dragging their daughter's body and their daughter's living husband through hell for fifteen years is not merciful, wise, or just. It's wrong, it's inhumane, it's selfish, and it is really, truly, the opposite of what life is all about.
Let her die. Her body is kept physically alive only by extraordinary, artificial means. She is brain dead. Much like, apparently. many, many of the state and now Federal-level Republicans using this horrible, tragic case as a political football to rally the faithful. Much like the fundamentalist hordes who in the name of some obscene supposed "culture of life," force the broken shell of this poor woman, and the poor husband of this woman, to endure a lingering, interminable living death that goes on and on and on, trapped by a body with only the appearance of life. She deserves death. He deserves a life. We all deserve dignity. And we do not deserve to have religious morals imposed on us by our government.
The state and Federal Republicans in this case are now frantically making up their own laws, for us *all* to live by. Ignorance and fear have trapped this woman, trapped her husband, and in some sense, trapped us all, in this horrible state. If they can, those who say they support life, but truly are part of a culture of sheer theocratic inhumanity, will act to impose these kinds of illogical, unjust, ignorant decisions on us. Remember that.
And please, please, if you haven't already, put together a Living Will, and save your family, and us all, the pain of potentially having to go through this all over again. I am embarrassed to admit that I don't have one, but by the end of this weekend, I will. (do a Google search on "living will" and you'll find all the info you need).
May you live, and die, in dignity.
-------
"O Herr, gib jedem seinen eignen Tod
God, give us each our own death,
the dying that proceeds
from each of our lives:
the way we loved,
the meanings we made,
our need."
--Rainer Maria Rilke
Oh my gods. This is so indescribably wrong.
Let her die. Let her soul lose its shackles to the hopelessly broken shell, to the body which shall never, ever work again (as every single competent doctor brought in to assess her over the weeks, months and fifteen years of this case has testified). Set her free, and let her go on to whatever reward awaits her. And if there is any justice for her, the reward shall be sweet indeed for having been so terribly abused -- by her sad, ignorant parents, by people who value the appearance of physical life over genuinely living. By people who are really looking for a miracle to somehow justify their own faith, and prove the existence of their god, to quiet their own deep fears that the universe isn't the ordered, simple place their book tells them it is, that the universe truly is a place where their daughter, and they themselves, will eventually die, and there are no guarantees that it will be at a time or in a manner of their choosing. This is a sad, hopeless attempt by frightened people to control the uncontrollable, to deny what was, is and ever shall be the one thing none of us can control, our mortality. And grief, though true and powerful, doesn't excuse the terrible thing her parents are doing. For a week, a month, a year, grief is an excuse for their actions, for not wanting to let go of their loved one and move on. But this is fifteen years later. Fifteen. Years.
In this situation, it would be no less likely for their daughter to return from the dead than it would be for her to be suddenly "cured" of a persistent vegetative state, so let her die. If your god wants to raise her, he will. Have faith in what you say you believe. Certainly it's not that simple, it's hard, incredibly hard. I'm a parent, and I can only imagine what it would be like to see my child in this state, to desperately want to cling to any small shreds of hope. I'm sure her parents loved her, and don't want to let her go, and that on some level, they know in their hearts that there is no unbelievable miracle waiting to happen, that she is, really, truly, already gone. But dragging their daughter's body and their daughter's living husband through hell for fifteen years is not merciful, wise, or just. It's wrong, it's inhumane, it's selfish, and it is really, truly, the opposite of what life is all about.
Let her die. Her body is kept physically alive only by extraordinary, artificial means. She is brain dead. Much like, apparently. many, many of the state and now Federal-level Republicans using this horrible, tragic case as a political football to rally the faithful. Much like the fundamentalist hordes who in the name of some obscene supposed "culture of life," force the broken shell of this poor woman, and the poor husband of this woman, to endure a lingering, interminable living death that goes on and on and on, trapped by a body with only the appearance of life. She deserves death. He deserves a life. We all deserve dignity. And we do not deserve to have religious morals imposed on us by our government.
The state and Federal Republicans in this case are now frantically making up their own laws, for us *all* to live by. Ignorance and fear have trapped this woman, trapped her husband, and in some sense, trapped us all, in this horrible state. If they can, those who say they support life, but truly are part of a culture of sheer theocratic inhumanity, will act to impose these kinds of illogical, unjust, ignorant decisions on us. Remember that.
And please, please, if you haven't already, put together a Living Will, and save your family, and us all, the pain of potentially having to go through this all over again. I am embarrassed to admit that I don't have one, but by the end of this weekend, I will. (do a Google search on "living will" and you'll find all the info you need).
May you live, and die, in dignity.
-------
"O Herr, gib jedem seinen eignen Tod
God, give us each our own death,
the dying that proceeds
from each of our lives:
the way we loved,
the meanings we made,
our need."
--Rainer Maria Rilke
