Wrong. In this thread I am advocating having a Living Will in order to avoid a Schiavo type of nightmare.
My overwhelming preference would have been for Michael and the Schindlers to work things out in private. I have no doubt Terri would have wished this as well.
What do we do when the family is so completely divided? Do you think that parents and siblings should just stand quietly by if they see a spouse making a decision that they emphatically believe is not what the patient would have wanted?
Once this case became a public issue - there was no happy resolution. It is a tragedy. There is really no other way to view it, imo.
In the end, the government did make the decision due to the schism in the family. I happen to think the evidence used to decide that Terri would have wished to die was flimsy. If you think it isn’t - that is your perogative.
Criticizing a court decision is not advocacy for government interference in personal tragedies.
Absolutely. It’s none of their fucking business. That’s what spouses are FOR, you ignorant fuck. When a person gets married, he/she is making a specific legal decsion to designate the spouse as the person to make those choices. The parents and siblings have no ownership over that individual and have no right to interfere with the choices made by that person’s deliberately chosen partner and guardian.
As it happens in this case, Michael decided to ask the court to decide what Terri’s wishes were. He didn’t have to do that. He could have just made the decsion himself but he wanted the court to make sure there was no rational doubt as to what Terri’s wishes would have been. Personally, I think he was too generous. There’s no way in hell I would want anyone obstructing my wife from carrying out my wishes in a situation like that. Especially not Jeb fucking Bush and Tom fucking DeLay.
You seem to have very little idea of what marriage is. Are you an adult? I get the feeling you may be a teenager. You seem to think that mommy and daddy should have lifelong control over your life and that your own decisions and wishes are worthless.
I also have no doubt that were the roles reversed and it was the husband who wanted to keep her hooked up to an unnatural living death and the parents who wanted to let her die with dignity you’d be keening and wailing about the sanctity of marriage. You’re a hypocrite and an idiot and a lying fuck. I will now join Zoe in the petition to remove your attention tube.
I understand what you’re saying here and I heartily agree. But additionally taking the position that “the court made the wrong decision” implies tacit approval of the court’s involvement.
We’re talking about a beloved woman dying here. There wasn’t going to be any happy resolution, whether it was public or not.
As Diogenes above and others in this thread have said, yes, the parents and siblings have no say in the matter. It is one of the legal rights conferred by marriage. It’s unfortunate, but we see what the alternative can be. The government should not get involved.
I suspect the Schiavo case was like the “Perfect Storm” of right-to-die arguments - if at any time either side had given in and said “Fine, fine! I’ve had enough, you take her, I wash my hands of this” the ultimate circus wouldn’t have happened. If the courts hadn’t kept butting in and granting appeals to her parents, the ultimate circus wouldn’t have happened. If Jeb Bush hadn’t stuck his nose in a few years ago, the ultimate circus wouldn’t have happened. If Congress hadn’t decided to pander to the fringe religious groups this year, the ultimate circus wouldn’t have happened. Etc.
Again, whether the judge ruled for Michael or Terri’s parents in essence doesn’t matter. Criticizing the outcome and saying the opposite decision should have been made gives credence to the concept that the government had any business making it in the first place.