That somebody is the State of Florida and the Hospice
charity. Which means resources are being taken away
from others.


--- Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> The fact is, this 'not pulling the plug' requires
> resources. In the case of
> Terri Schiavo, somebody is not only prepared but
> able to pay for the high
> level of care she requires, and is also prepared to
> envisage its
> continuation for a considerable time -- indeed, is
> unable to envisage its
> *not needing to continue. There will be many
> families who would count
> themselves lucky to reach the point of having the
> wherewithal to make such a
> decision if similar circumstances arose. The concept
> of life doesn't pass
> them by, but many of its opportunities do.
>
> best     joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 2:53 AM
> Subject: Re: A Rose for Emily & the Schindler Family
>
>
>
> > I have to break silence for a moment.  I am one of
> those "sacredness of
> > life" people you seem to find both irrational and
> inconsistent.  I was
> > brought to my present position over a long period
> beginning in 1998.
> > The breaking point was in reading of a Dutch law
> which, I believe,
> > allows severely damaged babies to be put to death.
>  Oh, we can say
> > 'starved' or something like that, but one human
> being is making the
> > choice to execute another who is defenseless.  I
> would rather not extend
> > the concept of life to include the womb since I
> don't have one of those,
> > but there's the corner, here's the paint and
> brush, and I might as well
> > damn well stand there and start painting, right?
> >
> >
> >
> > Now, odd though it may seem, if I regard the
> willed death of hours-old
> > infants in the Netherlands as legal execution,
> that is precisely how I
> > regard legal execution as well, and I really don't
> give too much of a
> > damn what the criminal did.  I believe forgiveness
> and mercy are radical
> > and irrational acts, the acts of sick human minds
> fighting to heal
> > themselves and those of others, and I can't see
> the substantive
> > difference between juridical murder, infanticide,
> third trimester or
> > so-called "partial birth" abortions, and even the
> "regular" kind.  No, I
> > am not Randall Terry, who wants to have the entire
> world procreate
> > according to some weird conception of God he
> harbors.  That is, give
> > people access to contraception and show them how
> to use the stuff; but
> > teach them at the same time that every act has a
> consequence.  I know a
> > woman who has counseled women who have had
> abortions, and she assured me
> > there are intense and long-term consequences
> attached.  Consequences are
> > the real world.
> >
> >
> >
> > Right now he has been mostly unconscious for a
> week.  He does not
> > recognize people.  He wakes up long enough to go
> back to sleep.  There
> > is no measured brain damage, he may eventually
> wake up, or he may not.
> > Shall my ex-wife and her sister do for him what I
> did for my
> > cancer-ridden cat 3 years ago?  She they let him
> go because it's
> > rational?  We have all read too much of what
> strikes me tonight as utter
> > bilge compared to the enormity of a single human
> life.  This is not a
> > fucking death cult, Alison, it is a struggle to
> preserve people, to
> > mourn when we lose them, to recognize that even
> the life of a messed-up
> > human being IS worth more than a dog's or a cat's
> even though both dogs
> > and cats seem at times to represent a higher form
> of moral life than
> > many humans.
> >
> > Terri Schiavo?  Plug her back in.  She will die
> soon enough without
> > assistance.  If this puts me in the same "bed"
> with some people I
> > despise, oh well.
> >
> > Ken
> >
> > --
> > ---------------
> > Kenneth Wolman         www.kenwolman.com
> kenwolman.blogspot.com
> >                 If you want patience, go to
> medical school.
> >
>

David Latane
http://www.standmagazine.org (Stand Magazine, Leeds)