Good morning
by Volker Weber
Senior Republican Tom DeLay, who leads the House of Representatives, attacked the US courts for allowing Mrs Schiavo to die: "We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."
Am I the only one seeing that this is not* about life and death but about getting the judiciary under the control of the government? Another step into a totalitarian regime.
*) With a population of nearly 300.000.000 and a life expectancy of 77 years, there are more than 10.000 people dying every day. You can expect there are quite a few of them who need relatives to decide it's time to turn off life support. I have been in that situation myself.
Comments
Yes, this silly idea of separation of powers is really annoying, isn't it ? Almost as annoying as the Geneva convention, say, or Habeas Corpus.
I'd like to see the same people who demonstrated in front of the hospital make the same noise, when a homeless dies because he couldn't affor some necessary medical treatement. Something like this could boost their credibility very much - independent from ones opinion on the issue.
As time goes by, I am getting more and more the impression, that the USA is on the best way to emulating Oceania in George Orwell's 1984.
Ich hab mich bisher aus allen Diskussionen rausgehalten....
Was mir nicht in den Kopf gehen will, ist die Tatsache, dass in einem Land, in dem es die Todesstrafe gibt und auch durchgezogen wird, so ein "Krieg" herrscht. Ansonsten: Die Frau tut mir leid. Ein Todesstrafe-Kandidat stirbt schneller und oft auch sanfter....
Her husband's side always said her brain would have been physically so damaged, she could not have any feelings anymore. In the meantime I am wondering why they gave morphium to her before she died, if her brain was dead anyway?
Ooops. Forgot to make those into links...
post and follow-up.
-rich
Dagmar and Marius, you are again drawn into the wrong story. As I said, this is not about a particular death.
One word: Bingo
It looks incredibly sinister the way the whole situation has been hijacked but that hasn't stopped the crusading Bush clan & their cronies before. Personally I distrust any type of religious fundamentalism being injected into this type of thing - it's a family matter, & it should have remained as such. Great respect to the US Courts for standing up & doing they are there to do. Bravo.
Now, if only the justice system worked just as good in Northern Ireland :D
Marius,
I'm not a doctor, but the way I understand it, it could have been done to limit the chances of her body feeling that something was wrong and having reactions which could have been very distressing to everyone involved.
I'm also tempted to think it was more of a feel good measure for her husband and family. That way they can relax knowing that even if there had been any part of her able to feel anything, she did not feel pain and went away peacefully.
The most amazing thing I learned, that's not even discussed in the general media, is how she went into the hospital in the first place.
She's in there because she got sick due to bulimia.
How's that for irony?
Scott
Bear in mind that nobody is saying that Ms. Schiavo was "brain dead". She was in a persistent vegetative state, which means that she could not comprehend or respond to any stimulus in any meaningful way. She still, however, had a functioning brain stem, which means that she probably had reflexes capable of inducing physiolgical reactions to pain. Surely, doing anything possible to inhibit those reflexes was the right thing to do, even if only to spare her family members the sight of muscle spasms.
-rich
George Bush is a hypocrite. When he was governor of Texas, I guess he was still working on his 'culture of life'.
No American governor has put more people to death than ... George W. Bush
Texas executes three men in one week
Google is a powerful tool! :-)
This is not exactly on Vowe's "totalitarianism" topic, but can someone tell the protesters to please go and help out in Africa where thousands (who I presume want to live) die a long drawn-out death through starvation every day...
If this situation happened to you (as you said it has Volker), I am sure that you wouldn't want people gaining on the back of it. That is all that is happening here. George is paying back to the fundaMENTALists for their votes. People are profiting out of a terrible experience. If you have an opinion, it is your right to have one. If you are not a member of the family, then GO AWAY. Light your candles somewhere else where CNN can see you. The american judiciary system stood to the law, and they deserve credit. They won't get it though.
Another scary thought - given that the judiciary had to stand up to the neoconservatives - is that the Republican majority in the US Congress is now considering doing away with the filibuster. This (filibuster) is really the only process by which the Democratic party stands a chance of preventing an ultra-radical neocon judicial nominee from gaining appointment. Once the judiciary is populated with those who would put their personal religious and philosophical feelings above the objective interpretation of the Constitution and law, all is lost.
The only one? No, but I've already taken a shot at Tom Delay recently. And I'm sure I will again. Maybe I should try and register TomDelayIsAHyprocriticalSleazebag.com?
Sidenote: watch the latest South Park episode.
