The Terri Schiavo battle is still going on - I have been reading the news and opinion on the battle all over. I have a problem with the phrasing of the issue by most people - many have called it the case of “right-to-die”. I disagree with that. If Terri had left clear instructions, if not written atleast verbal ones to more than one person, I would consider this a case of right-to-die. Terri is not expressing her wishes here - the only person who claims to represent tham had remembered them miraculously after winning a million-dollar settlement on his wife’s behalf in court. He has specifically said in court when he won the money that he would spend the rest of his life taking care of his wife - all of a sudden he remembers she really didn’t want to live like that and would rather die?
I think this is clearly a case of she-said/he-said rather than exercising Terri’s right-to-die. We don’t know if Terri wanted to die. I know maybe I wouldn’t want to. That doesn’t mean she didn’t want to. this is what I find pretty appalling on the side of the right-to-die people. I read a column claiming that the pro-life people are trying to impose their values on everybody else by trying to keep Terri alive. I think it is also the case of the right-to-diers assuming that since they wouldn’t want to be alive like that, Terri wouldn’t want to be alive either. See? the imposing values thing works both ways.
Coming back to more mundane things, I don’t have any web access at work, so blogging is restricted to weekends and nights (I know, it sucks). The baby is doing real good as are the dogs :)
Good stuff happening in Lebanon - crazy, all that crap about Michael Jackson (I wonder about the mental health of any parents who would allow their kids anywhere near that freak - their kids need to be repossessed by CPS or something). I think that the new bankruptcy bill will screw consumers’ happiness and the Republicans suck for pushing it.
Oh, I hate it that iTunes will not support anything other than iPods - I had free coupons from a couple of friends that I used to download songs from iTunes - I had to burn them to CD and then rip them to put them in my Creative Zen. I really don’t get the obsession of various people with such proprietary software. I wanted a player that wouldn’t restrict me and thank God, I got one. Hate Apple!
Posted by shanti at March 13, 2005 10:33 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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As far as the Schiavo issue goes, I might be portrayed as heartless for saying this. Pull the freakin plug. I tend to forget if I gave my reasons here in your blog or on another blog by Wings.
Posted by: Sriram at March 14, 2005 9:53 AM
Sriram, it wasn’t here. I would love to hear them.
Posted by: Shanti at March 14, 2005 6:02 PM
Pardon me if this draws out too long. I’ll try to make this short. My personal opinion is that once the mind is gone, there is no point in sustaining the body. What is the point? You are just hogging resources! You may ask me as to what I’d do if this were to happen to someone close to me. My answer wud be the same and FYI, this HAS happened to someone close to me. There were similar arguments abt “pulling the plug”. My view is that once a person becomes a “vegetable” there is no “soul”, and the person just “ceases to exist” as a person. (Wow, can I be more confusing?) When that is the case, I don’t see how “loving and caring” for an inanimate object matters. True that it is a hard decision, but faced with the fact that the person in question is never going to return, what’s wrong in “pulling the plug”? Putting the money that might be spent for futile purposes(such as keeping the brain-dead person “alive” (if u can call it that) to help others who are really in need is a much better option right? You with me on this? (p.s : I’m just a confused lil kid, though i’m 23 :mad: so don’t let my opinions have an effect on you!) Peace.
Posted by: Sriram at March 16, 2005 9:46 AM
Sriram, I agree with your general sentiment. I don’t think using public money to keep people in a vegetative state alive is a good idea. The only difference is that I don’t see that as the case with Terri. If her parents want to keep spending money to keep her alive, I think it is their prerogative.
Posted by: Shanti at March 18, 2005 5:58 PM
Don’t know if you saw this
http://jerrybrown.typepad.com/jerry/2005/03/florida_v_texas.html
Posted by: JK at March 23, 2005 9:23 PM
JK, actually I see no contradiction in the two cases. If the government were being forced to pay for Terri, I would say her parents’ case is bogus. You do have the right to decide if your child or loved one will live - you don’t on the other hand, have the right to make someone else pay for it.
Posted by: Shanti at March 24, 2005 1:44 AM
Just think of the enormous benefit society would have received had all the efforts of the people on both sides of this case been put into something else that is more constructive! May be something like raising donations and garnering support for the medical research into finding cures for this vegetative state! But then, it wouldn’t be a hot selling story! Would it be?
Posted by: Sri at March 27, 2005 12:34 PM
You are a Software Engineer and you dont have access to the web? Thats surprising. Any questions that I have about coding, I first take opinion from Dr.Google.
Posted by: Anand at March 28, 2005 10:26 PM
Anand, it is a stupid place with stupid rules that I work at. What can I say? :(
Posted by: Shanti at March 29, 2005 6:46 AM
Oh ho, not a good idea to say anything about your workplace affairs over here. Remember Mark Jen?
Posted by: Anand at March 31, 2005 11:29 PM