Subject:
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Hmm, so now state legislatures are practicing medicine...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 21 Oct 2003 22:31:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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235 times
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http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/21/coma.woman/index.html
This case is pretty disturbing. It seems that folks want to go to no end of
efforts to keep people alive. Are we headed for a future where we can't have our
LEGO because someone feels that the energy that is spent to develop, purchase,
and play with LEGO would be better spent keeping people with no quality of life
alive? When do we stop medical intervention? Do we legislate poverty (forcing
people to spend down to a poverty level for health care before medicare etc.
will kick in)? Will legislatures legislate that we get such and such exercise
per day, and eat such and such a diet to maintain health?
So I wonder how many more dollars will be pissed into the winds while the
husband fights this all the way up to the Supreme Court. And what happens then?
If they rule the law used to put her back on life support unconstitutional, does
he have to fight again to get her taken off? Does the FL legislature just pass
another law, or throw some other obstacle in his path? What if the Supreme Court
declines to take the case, or rules the law is constitutional? When does it end?
Perhaps the poor fellow should just leave the country with his million dollars
and let the state of Florida care for his wife.
While I generally support the idea of assisted suicide, I also agree that there
are some concerns. On the other hand, this case is a poster case for the issues
about just how much resources do we allot to keeping people alive? If you assert
that there is any right whatsoever to "every effort must be made to keep someone
alive" and that you can't draw lines in the sand, then you are asserting that
every bit of resource everyone has should be devoted to looking for ways to keep
people alive longer. No play. No LEGO. No music. Of course some of those things
are important to a quality of life, but how do we decide? The right to lifers
seem to assert that only God is fit to judge (while gunning for the death
penalty every time they can, but no, I guess that's different...).
Frank
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