Pardon: Goddammit!
Ahem.
Congress has been busy this week doing the serious work of the people: investigating steroid use in pro baseball, and the one I want to consider, trying to invent a way to have jurisdiction over whether a woman in a persistent vegetative state should be allowed to die.
The reason I say "Goddammit!" is really twofold.
First, to be brief, let the woman die. She has brain damage due to lack of oxygen following a heart attack fourteen (14) years ago. Meanwhile, her husband and legal guardian has won court case after court case demonstrating her wish not to be kept alive with extraodrinary means under such circumstances, and her nutjob parents have made endless futile appeals, dragging the poor husband (and their daughter) through a meaningless struggle. They appealed to the Supreme Court twice, and both times the Court declined to hear the case. This is simply because there is no merit in the case: the right to be allowed to die was established long ago through the Karen Ann Quinlan case.
When the husband won a previous legal battle that seemed finally to end the 14 year agony and 7 year courtroom absurdity, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida demanded a special session of the Florida legislature to push through a law that would ban removal of the feeding tube. That law was found unconstitutional by Florida's supreme court.
Now the Republican dominated Senate is trying to intervene, under the pressure of Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee - a doctor, who has not examined the woman in question. (That should say something about Frist's commitment to ethical conduct as a physician, as well as his conduct as a legislator. That this is intended and taken as a sign of his holiness disgusts me to a degree I can't express - not without a whole lot of foul language.)
Let her go. She hasn't voted Republican for over a decade, and she won't start now. Anyway, this is Florida we're talking about; surely, if she's registered Republican, she can vote even if she is dead.
Second, the reason Congress is wasting time and money on these idiotic shenanigans is basically to avoid dealing with the people's business. It gives them a bully pulpit to grandstand their alleged moral superiority, to give a show of being Good Christians to the folks back home who vote on those grounds.
The Holier-Than-Thou stance they take is disgusting. They're trolling for votes by competing in Piety Olympics. There may be perfectly good ethical reasons, or even religious doctrines, that would justify letting the woman die. That's not important here. It's a freakshow.
Ahem.
Congress has been busy this week doing the serious work of the people: investigating steroid use in pro baseball, and the one I want to consider, trying to invent a way to have jurisdiction over whether a woman in a persistent vegetative state should be allowed to die.
The reason I say "Goddammit!" is really twofold.
First, to be brief, let the woman die. She has brain damage due to lack of oxygen following a heart attack fourteen (14) years ago. Meanwhile, her husband and legal guardian has won court case after court case demonstrating her wish not to be kept alive with extraodrinary means under such circumstances, and her nutjob parents have made endless futile appeals, dragging the poor husband (and their daughter) through a meaningless struggle. They appealed to the Supreme Court twice, and both times the Court declined to hear the case. This is simply because there is no merit in the case: the right to be allowed to die was established long ago through the Karen Ann Quinlan case.
When the husband won a previous legal battle that seemed finally to end the 14 year agony and 7 year courtroom absurdity, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida demanded a special session of the Florida legislature to push through a law that would ban removal of the feeding tube. That law was found unconstitutional by Florida's supreme court.
Now the Republican dominated Senate is trying to intervene, under the pressure of Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee - a doctor, who has not examined the woman in question. (That should say something about Frist's commitment to ethical conduct as a physician, as well as his conduct as a legislator. That this is intended and taken as a sign of his holiness disgusts me to a degree I can't express - not without a whole lot of foul language.)
Let her go. She hasn't voted Republican for over a decade, and she won't start now. Anyway, this is Florida we're talking about; surely, if she's registered Republican, she can vote even if she is dead.
Second, the reason Congress is wasting time and money on these idiotic shenanigans is basically to avoid dealing with the people's business. It gives them a bully pulpit to grandstand their alleged moral superiority, to give a show of being Good Christians to the folks back home who vote on those grounds.
The Holier-Than-Thou stance they take is disgusting. They're trolling for votes by competing in Piety Olympics. There may be perfectly good ethical reasons, or even religious doctrines, that would justify letting the woman die. That's not important here. It's a freakshow.
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