Posted on 03/29/2005 6:14:30 PM PST by goldstategop
RUSH: Back to the phones, and we'll go to Clarkston, Michigan. This Don. Welcome to the program, sir. Nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Hey, union thug dittos, Rushbo.
RUSH: Great to have you. Yeah.
CALLER: Yes, sir. Do you have an advance directive, sir, an advance medical directive?
RUSH: You are asking personal information from the host?
CALLER: No, sir, I'm just asking a "yes" or a "no," whether or not you do, sir.
RUSH: I do. I have that and much more.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You want some details? I'll even give you details.
CALLER: No, sir. I was just wondering because I think the only way we're ever going to solve this problem is if everybody has an AMD. I just don't see any other way to solve it. Everybody has to have one, otherwise people are going to continue to rely on the court system to decide life or death.
RUSH: Well, yes, true. But the medical community is going to be more and more involved as well, if those circumstances such as your advanced medical directive, your AMD or the living will is not in force. But, you know, I've learned a lot from this case. You know, I had a basic little living will before this case happened, but I have made changes. I've got one of these directives. But I got real specific with it. For example, anybody named as a beneficiary in my will who participates in the removal of a feeding tube gets cut out of the will. I have made it very plain. I am going to try to be in as much control over myself as I can before this circumstance, were it to happen to me, would happen to me. I'm not going to allow family members who for whatever reason -- I don't care if they're compassionate for me. It's so well defined, and as medical advance takes place before the time of my passage to eternity, I will update it to reflect those advances in medicine, because this is just too (interruption). What are you laughing at in there, Brian? "Before my passage to eternity?" Well, it's what I believe. This has just been too instructive for me. Megan, Kansas City, Missouri, you're next on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush, it's just an honor to talk to you. I just love you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I have a comment on -- or I have an opinion, rather, on -- why Jesse Jackson is saying what he is saying and I think it has to do with because of his ethnicity and in the past having the three-fifths compromise and how people have viewed black people as three-fifths of a person, he might have a special interest.
RUSH: I think you've got a point. I think that's one of the reasons why the Congressional Black Caucus is concerned about this.
CALLER: I also have maybe an idea for the Democratic Party if they're considering these people less than people. If they can get a whole bunch of them together maybe they can do the three-fifths compromise again for the Democratic Party.
RUSH: (Laughing.) You never know. You know, this does touch a lot of nerves that people don't have the willingness to publicly express, like the Congressional Black Caucus. It comes as news to me that they hold this position. They've not been (interruption). Is that hard to find, Mr. Snerdley? No, I'm not surprised, but what I'm surprised is that nobody knows it. What I'm surprised is that the press is not trumpeting this. What I'm surprised is that the CBC and its leaders are not standing up and proclaiming their position on this. I mean, they have it within their group when they take their caucus votes and this sort of thing. But yeah, you know, when you go back and look at the history of slavery in the country, the founding of the country, black people were considered three-fifths of a person, talk about personhood being denied. So this has some chilling effects on certain members of our population. John in Pittsburgh, you're next and welcome to the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, pro-personhood dittos from the 'burbs.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: I listened to the sound bite, Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer in the last hour --
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: -- and here's what I find really bizarre about this. When you point out to people who want to let Terri starve, by their own arguments she's not suffering at all. You say to them, "Well, she's in no pain. If she's not aware at all of her own existence then how exactly is it merciful to let her die?" They sort of shift the argument around, shift their position and say, "Well, it's not about her physical suffering really, it's about her dignity. She should be allowed to die with dignity." And here you have this smarmy, creepy lawyer, Felos –- a complete stranger to Terri, not even a medical person, by the way -- discussing her urine output at a press conference beamed around the globe to millions of people. I guess that's their definition of dying with dignity, though.
RUSH: Hmm. (Laughing.) Well said, sir.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: (Laughing.) Well said, dying with dignity. Yeah, kidneys are beginning to fail. He's sending a signal to people who are informed as to how death will occur in this case, that it's getting closer. That's what he was doing. But don't leave out the fact that he paints this picture of her room with the flowers and the music. Of course, she doesn't know it. She's a vegetable. She's a nonperson. A little stuffed cat there, tabby cat in her arm. It's meant to be a picture of peace and serenity for us, and we will project and think, "Oh, wow, I would love to die with music playing and I would love to die with flowers around. I would love to die with a pet tabby cat animal in my arm. What a wonderful room! What a wonderful situation," and then it sort of argues against the fact she doesn't have any clue, according to what they're telling us. So this is, you know, none of this is being done for her. It's all being done to paint a picture so that people who go in the room can come out and tell us what they saw.
That's exactly the way I feel. I don't want to be kept alive artificially, but I don't count food and water artificial.
What a pitiful take on what was said. Rush is afraid of being killed off before his time ala Terri Schaivo. Pitiful that some people don't realize the same can happen to them.
You could probably get this document at a book store and fill it out with a Notary's stamp.
I'm requesting a plug with an extension chord!
I just found out in Indiana you can request NO measures, but you cannot pick and choose. We had a similar case back in the early 90's which resulted in the patient's death, but it didn't get much publicity.
This has to stop. I agree with Rush. I don't mind leaving when I am brain-dead and on a ventilator, but I sure as heck don't want to die of thirst!
Yep, I can just see the TV ads now....
DON'T BE LEFT WITHOUT A PLAN!!!
DON'T LEAVE IT TO OTHERS!!!
DEMAND YOUR DIGNITY!!!!
GET A LIVING WILL BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
Attorney William B. Lancechaser, Living Wills since 2005
Not a Board Certified Attorney
I told my family that I only get one life, and I want all of it. I don't WANT to be a hardship on my family, but if I AM a hardship, TOUGH! That's part of life and relationships. And they can teach their kids to do the same for them. Otherwise, we're all doomed to "subjective relativity" from wholly subjective relatives. Not good.
This has been made clear to them for at least ten years.
Told them if I can't hug them or hassle them, PULL THE PLUG.
I don't at all support what is happening to Terri Schiavo as we speak, because I believe that the removal of her feeding tube is probably in direct violation of her Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs (she was a strict Catholic, and her family and friends believe that she thought suicide to be a sin). This is a murder, plain and simple, because the will of the dying woman was never taken into account, and it makes me sick.
On the other hand, I know what I'd want if I was ever in the state that Terri is in, and I've made that will very well known to my family and friends (but I still have to get it in writing). I don't want to be placed on any form of "artificial" life should I wind up in such a state. No tubes, no plugs...just let me die in peace. I get lonely and sad fairly easily, and an imprisonment within my own body, minus my free will, isn't one that I want to live.
If I have no hope of ever being able to recover from a life of tube-fueled monotony and being an economic/emotional burden on my family though the troopers would never admit it), I will have nothing more to offer the world and will have no reason to live on. Furthermore, I think that maybe one doesn't have to actually stop breathing for God to tell them when it's over.
Sounds good. I especially like the Fox News part!
I wonder if they will let posts to Free Republic into the records.
What a pitiful take on what was said. Rush is afraid of being killed off before his time ala Terri Schaivo. Pitiful that some people don't realize the same can happen to them.
I know it will happen to me, to each of us.
So what?
It's not that big a deal.
Unless you think it's the end?
So9
For me, it'll be talk radio--Rush, Glenn, Laura Ingraham--and SciFi channel--otherwise, I'm completely with you.
"Nurse? I can't remember if she said Fox News or Gilligan's Island reruns.... What the hey - - leave Gilligan on."
I have quite a speel. Would I seem to bold to ask if you'd mind checking it for me? I can't remember the last time anyone checked it and it prolly needs it purdy bad!!!
Oh! Please excuse me for getting off track and put me down for long-term care on Montigo Bay, Jamica with lotsa rum-raisan ice cream, if you please...
"And make sure that Fox News is on the TV in my room."
That sounds good. I think I'll add that to my mine....
I might be deaf as a vegetable, so turn it up enough where all the nurses and patients can hear it! When Rush comes on the radio, turn that up too, then turn the station to Dallas afterwards in case I missed something because it is delayed in Dallas. Then when its over, change my diaper, and put the TV back on Fox.
Now THAT's a CLASSIC that bears repeating and amplification, along with memorialization!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.