A Tear for Terri

3/29/05

I feel saddened by the Terri Shiavo story. In all this public outcry from the right and left Terri Shiavo is forced to die without dignity. She can obviously not live with dignity. Did she want to be the poster girl for euthanasia? Did she want the Republican epitome of corruption Tom Delay coming to her defense to keep her on a feeding tube? Did she really want baby Bush to leave his vacation in Crawford to come to her aid ? I don’t think so.

“Opinions are like assholes everybody has one” I saw this on a tee shirt once and thought it was appropriate. I have as much knowledge into the Terri Shiavo case as most who have been interested in this story, but I have no right to intervene in the decision or even attempt to sway anyone toward one side or the other. This is an extremely personal decision placed upon the custodian of Terri Shiavo’s life.

I have asked my own conscience if I would want to be left alive in a vegetative state, dependent upon someone daily to wash me and empty a urine and colon bag three or four times a day and feed me with a feeding tube until the insurance company or Medicare or whoever and whatever decided I wasn’t worth keeping alive anymore. I had to answer NO. What possible purpose could there be for me to want to delay my inevitable death. I would want to end such a pathetic existence. If I was dying from an incurable disease, with no possible way of expressing myself other than a few involuntary bodily functions, I would be most anxious to leave such a life and I would be totally embarrassed and mortified at the thought of ever insisting that some assigned guardian have to make the decision for me. Just the thought of possibly being under the guardianship of some sanctimonious, born again, moron insisting that my agony be prolonged, or that I should die a painful death by starvation and thirst because it is God’s way, or having the President and the entire U.S Congress intervene in the decision to extend my wretched existence indefinitely is beyond my comprehension.

I would wish for a quick death. I would wish for a painless death. I wish for immortality so I may never know death but the last thing anyone in their right mind could wish for is a painful and prolonged death. No loving spouse or family member or merciful judge could ever condone such a death. The passion of Christ didn’t mean that we have to all be scourged and crucified or suffer great pain at death. Those who have read the life of Christ know that he wanted his death to be as it was.

I am not Christ and as far a I can tell no one else on earth is either; not the dying pope, nor the wealthiest evangelist and definitely not (though many of his moronic followers want to believe he is) G.W. Bush. The Terri Shiavo story is a sad and disdainful episode that has incensed the American consciousness. It has become a magnifying glass clouded by a tear upon the true collective soul of the American people.

L.A. Steel