Living Will (for Terri)

This is what my friend emailed me concerning Terri Shiavo. My Response is below.


Subject: Living Will

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and
body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood
ethically challenged politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if
their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a
cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a
determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and
attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the hypocritical members of the Legislature
(State or Federal) enact a special law to keep me on life-support
machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business,
and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the
millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case.

I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for
their run for the presidency, it is my wish that they play politics with
someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to
legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these
people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my
behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a
political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his
or her existence a living hell.

Signature_______________________________
Witness________________________________
DATE__________

My Response:
I guess we're on the opposite sides of the fence on the Terri Shiavo issue. The Living Will piece was comical, but full of misinformation and ad hominem attacks. For example, a feeding tube is not considered "artificial means." Terri slowly starved to death over 13 days. If she wasn't in any pain, then why did they give her morphine?

"If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a
cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a
determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and
attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day."

Her husband never allowed Terri to have any type of therapy, so she would have never sat up by herself, and to pull the plug would imply she was on life support; she wasn't. This is definitely an equivocation. Is the issue quality of life (i.e. how much can she regain her former life) or is artificial life support? Clarity is key, but obviously that is not the point of this Living Will.

"Under no circumstances shall the hypocritical members of the Legislature
(State or Federal) enact a special law to keep me on life-support
machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business,
and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the
millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma."

Congress did not enact a special law to keep her on life support. They enacted a law for judicial review of the facts of her case, which they did not do. Its basically similar to judicial review of a death penalty case. The fact that the judges did follow the law worries me a whole lot more than Congress. The fact that judges can overrule Congress by fiat is amazing to say the least. Furthermore, Terry was not in a permanent coma.

The Terri Shiavo case is by no means an easy issue. There are a lot of question on both sides of the fence like the motives of her husband (living with his girlfriend and their two children), further brain scans to determine her mental state, and the possibility of therapy. This really would not have been an issue if she was on a respirator and brain dead, but she wasn't. What would have been wrong with looking at all the options and erring on the side of life? I definitely don't know all the answers, but it's far more serious then the Living Will lets on.