September 24, 2004

• Guy sounds like an ass; if I were in her position though I think I'd want to die. Also if she can interact with her family can they not just ask her what she wants, if you're not in a position to blink if you want to live I think it's more humane to let the person go. It's a very tough call, and in this case the whole thing sounds dreadful.
• I would not wish to be in the position that the loving hubby is in. Having my finances and probable motives opened in front of the whole world. Having the woman that I once loved as a piece of living meat being fought over by everyone. The parents are not keeping her alive for her sake, but for theirs. If there had been no money, would this be an issue? What happens in the state of Florida, today, when a moneyless coma patient exists for years and years, with no way to pay the bills?
• are we sure the guy is a douchebag? perhaps she DID tell him she wouldn't want to live this way, perhaps she's thinking, why don't they just let me die?
• Two biased links does not a compelling argument make. A good Libertarian would say "Hey, there's no way of knowing what she told anyone. Let's go with what the majority of the doctors (and the courts) said and let the woman die." Well, strike the Libertarian and put in "thinking person."
• Yeah, gotta say I'm not convinced that she's better off, 14 years of PVS and all. He may be a douchebag, but I'm curious how this benefits her. He's still her husband, which means he still inherits when she dies, all things being equal.
• What's a moral, responsible libertarian to do? Perhaps the moral, responsible thing to do is to reconsider one's political philosophy.
• Sorry, but given the fact that she has been comatose for so long, she will, never, ever get better. Period. Sad but true. This whole horrific episode can best serve as a cautionary tale illustrating what happens when people don't specify their wishes in an advance directive/"living will" as to the measures they wish taken in an event such as this. Here is some information on what it means to be in a persistent vegetative state. More and better info is no doubt out there and easily Googled.
• Unable to read link to Washington Post as I refuse to register for anything (except maybe MonkeyFilter). But I fail to see the problem here (government wise, that is). The judicial system made a decision. The executive and legislative branches didn't like it, so they cooperated to fix it to a way they did like. So long as they don't make a habit of doing this for every single little thing, not a problem. It's how the system is supposed to work. Unaniminity on every matter is not required, and the judiciary is not some monarchy that gets to make binding decisions that can not be overruled. My understanding of the libertarian manifesto was that the executive branch should bomb the Mur out of foreign enemies, and the other branches should just wither up and die. But not before we privatize the sidewalks. But then, it's been a loooooong time since I read the libertarian manifesto.
• OOOOOOOO! libertarians have a manifesto? how cool is THAT!? monkeyfilter should have a manifesto, too! i want a manifesto, damn it. manifesto envy
• monkeyfilter should have a manifesto, too! The Turkmenifesto.
• SideDish: You are right to be suspicious. Smallish bear's hatchet job in this story is, blunty, biashed trash. It overlooks that the woman is not "disabled"; the only medical professionals who have claimed she is anything other than a vegetable are the ones her parents have hired to do so in their desperation to trap the vegetable that looks like their daughter in her current state. Nice for them; less neat for everyone else.
• Michael says she told him she didn't want to live like this. Her parents say she never mentioned it to them. The lesson for this libertarian-leaning citizen is to have this conversation with as many people as it takes. Parents, siblings, spouses, best friends - anyone who could possibly be in a position to make a decision about your health care needs to know exactly what you want. Years ago I was very surprised to learn at a family dinner while expressing my desire to be an organ donor that I was the only one in my family who felt that way. (Two people have since changed their minds.) But the point is, they know what I would want done. Sometimes knowing exactly what that person wants makes it easier to fight the courts for so long. Maybe that is what Michael is doing.
• Living Will Site has a ton of information and your doctor's office probably has the form. No way I'm gonna let my wacked out family make that choice for me.
• What the_bone said. She's not coming back. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Nor do they want to see anybody get there ahead of 'em.
• It seems like some of the details in that article were suspect; for example, the bit about him melting down the wedding rings to make a ring for himself. That sounds strangely fabricated to me, and it is purported with no source. Whether or not he had other female companions (and if his wife had become vegetative, it's not a surprising thing to do), he is still her husband, and he obviously couldn't have known this would happen when he married her. The political forces promoting her continued existence seem to want to make an example of this more than anything else.
• LarimdaME: But what about the precedent this sets? As in, the idea of legal precendent, where once somehting happens in the legal realm it's pretty much taken as law, the judges don't redecide the same issue. I don't know if that applies when the legislative and executive totally disregard the literal foundation of our country, but I would think so. A better move would to make some sort of law that would prevent people from making such decisions if they have such a signifigant gain (if the Standard is to believed, which I also question). Or perhaps a better appeal process. I don't know. Also, the idea that its more moral to let someone die slowly than them being euthanized is rediculous, if you ask me.
• Let. Her. Go. She isn't a moral conundrum, she's a human who has been so injured she can't drink or feed herself. Ever. Let. Her. Go. Stop using her parents and her husband as an excuse for playing tug-of-war with issues that do not, specifically, address her situation. to use her carcass for this purpose is an obscenity. She's never coming back. Let. Her. Go. I had a dog that had been injured to the point where she couldn't feed herself or drink water. We put her to sleep. whatever was left of her spirit didn't deserve to spend a week dying of dehydration. If I'm ever in this position, my fellow monkeys, let me go. please. my spirit will have already gone wherever's next, what's left is just a shell. (this is one of MY hot buttons, can you tell?)
• Vegetative patient 'communicates'.
• Police 'Showdown' Over Schiavo Averted Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted - but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Miami Herald has learned. Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding. For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called "a showdown." . . . Participants in the high-stakes test of wills, who spoke with The Herald on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the standoff could ultimately have led to a constitutional crisis and a confrontation between dueling lawmen. Taken from an elsewhere-posted H-dogg joint