Stupid article. Anyone...disabled or not, should simply fill out a form designating their wishes to be artificially kept alive or to be left alone after such and such a procedure. This can be placed in the care of someone
in the family, a lawyer if you have one, or the nursing
home/hospital where you are receiving care.
This is all just HOOPLA to instill fear in the elderly
or those not capable of putting together a logical
train of thought. Further, anyone, regardless of age,
who has NOT completed such a form is taking a great risk.
I won't add "an idiot" since I know many people are already
getting over the hype instigated in the Schiavo case.
Put it this way: If you have accumulated valuables along
life's journey and you haven't made a statement about what you want done with them upon your demise, then you probably don't give a hoot about what they do with your body once it is no longer useful to you!
Unfortunately the law can change and unless you keep up and change your living will, you might be in for a surprise. For instance, when Terri supposedly told Michael she wouldn't want artificial life support, feeding tubes and hydration were not considered life support. The law changed in 1990 or 91 (I think). So, had she actually had a living will saying she didn't want life support, she may not have realized that with a change in law she was now saying she didn't want hydration or food.
Living Wills may actually give you a very false sense of security, since we cannot write one to cover all contengencies.
susie
Yeah, that really helped Mae what's-her-name from Georgia. BTW I don't consider food and water to be artificial. Did you eat today? drink? Why?
Fill out the form or we'll kill you?
Well, they've already admitted they ignore the Don't Kill Me docs.
This is all just HOOPLA to instill fear in the elderly or those not capable of putting together a logical train of thought. Further, anyone, regardless of age, who has NOT completed such a form is taking a great risk. I won't add "an idiot" since I know many people are already getting over the hype instigated in the Schiavo case.
BAH! Your "form" won't save you. I can guarantee you this: give me enough hearsay evidence piled up in a case like it was in the Schiavo case, the ear of a sympathetic judge (like Greer), a slew of conflicted witnesses whose testimony is given decisive weight to the exclusion of contrary testimony, and I can shred any "form" you might have into so much chaff and scatter it to the legal winds.
And don't start with the "the courts have never disallowed written wishes" crap of an argument, either. Because time was when the courts were guardians of inalienable rights, and were there to protect the most vulnerable and helpless among us. Now they are killers of them.
Because what this case has proven is that your wishes won't matter in circumstances like this. The desires of others will. What that means is that individuals who stand innocent in the eyes of the law, who have committed no crime nor are even accused of one, no longer have control of their own destiny. Someone else does, and it is just a roll of the dice as to whether they will have your, or their, interests at heart when they decide if you should live or die.
There is a charming little old Lady from LaGrange, GA, now being treated in B'ham, AL, who had such a written instruction, stating that she didn't want anyone withholding food and water from her if she became incapacitated. Oddest thing, a family member went to a judge and got appointed guardian and ignored Mae's directives in order to starve her to death. It didn't succeed, thanks to Mae's relatives in B'ham.
Hello! Some folks are mentally challenged, meaning they can't just simply fill out a form for themselves. Meaning they would have to depend on someone else to make decisions for them. Meaning some have family members like MICHAEL SCHIAVO and YOU CAN'T TRUST PEOPLE LIKE THAT!! Meaning the disabled are at the mercy of some monsters.
Something must be done to protect vulnerable people.
This was a rational discussion of the real issue for most of us of Terri's case. It wasn't forcing someone to live against their will, or inserting ourselves in "their" decision. It was that there was a question about which way things should go absent a clear indication.
Your post says that anybody who doesn't want to be put to death when they are disabled should "simply" write up a legal document asking to be kept alive. There are two problems.
One, minor problem, is that sometimes these forms are IGNORED. The argument is that you weren't "competent" to make the decision ahead of time because you didn't know what it really was like.
But that is just a symptom of the bigger problem, which is the lean of society to the idea that some people are better off dead.
See, there is are economic and emotional reasons why someone would be biased toward ending the life of a person who can't protect themselves. The only thing protecting them is laws in the books, OR the general societal bias toward life. Now we've lost the societal bias, it has leaned toward "killing" as the "humane" thing to do. So in fact those who argued for Terri's life were called the mean-spirited ones, while those who called for her death were the compassionate ones.
The law of the United States should be that you only get put to death if you specifically requested it. You should not have to specifically request to be kept alive.
I agree with you 100%. It's insulting that any disabled American would say such a thing. Just do what everybody else in America has to do. Unbelievable.
(Posted by mercyme - Florida end-of-life panel decisions/law-since all decisions become automatic law if the panel wishes)
They also state that advanced directives providing for treatment should not carry the same weight as directives withdrawing care, and advanced directives should not compel the physican to provide them, regardless if the patient needs them (Doty). Doty is part of the Florida Bioethics Network as well as Project Grace. One of the changes in the law in CB/CB/SB 2228 includes the Bioethics Network as part of the process of withdrawing care. "
See what utter depravity can be promoted by creating laws to allow others to kill without penalty and by allowing a "panel" to make laws instead of legislators doing the jobs they are paid to do - make laws.
Better not rely on your own advice, or you'll be the one who ends up looking stupid. And dead.
You're an ignorant fool. If you think a living will is going to protect you then you need to have a chat wih Ora Mae Magourik.