Just Accept It

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

It's been five days since Terri Schiavo received any food or water from a Florida Hospice bedroom where she's currently wasting away.

Air America Radio is pleased the court won't demand that caregivers "force-feed" the "brain dead woman," as if Mrs. Schiavo is really brain dead, a term that is medically defined as someone who is truly deceased...you know, not living - should be in a casket by now.

Liberals have told me to just accept it, just leave it alone. The courts have ruled. Get over it.

"Yes, um, Mrs. Brown, I know your daughter was slain by a knife-wielding maniac and her killer walks free and plays golf in Miami every Sunday morning, but the court found him not guilty – and because our legal system is perfect – you'll just have to 'accept it.’"

Sorry, but I won't accept a judge's ruling that is based on sole testimony of a husband who claims in private he was told by Mrs. Schiavo that she wouldn't want to be kept alive by "extreme measures."

Fair enough, but who are we (or Mr. Schiavo) to say that "extreme measures" includes a mere feeding tube that supplies food and water?

Mr. Schiavo could have confirmed, "Sure honey, but should I still grant your wish if you can breathe on your own, recognize stimuli and respond to affection by your family?" But he didn't, therefore I cannot just accept it.

I can't accept it because doctors, including Nobel Prize candidates, believe they can rehabilitate her. I can't accept it because nurses have testified via sword affidavit that she has tried to communicate with them, and one nurse, Carla Sauer Iyer, overheard Mr. Schiavo exclaiming, 'When is that b---h gonna die?'"

But most importantly, I cannot accept the method by which we're letting Mrs. Schiavo die. Why can't we give her a sedative and administer lethal injection? It would take minutes, not weeks. It would be painless, not torture.

No state could get away with administering such justice to a convicted murderer, because depriving a human of food and water – no matter how depraved -- is cruel and unusual. That's no way to treat a killer. That's no way to treat an innocent woman.