Terri's Life

I'm just as sick of this as anyone else and my anger, resentment and frustration over this skyrocketed after hearing Saint DeLay's comments last week: (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars).

"One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America," Mr. DeLay told a conference organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. A recording of the event was provided by the advocacy organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"This is exactly the issue that is going on in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others," Mr. DeLay said.

Ohhhh, I see! The left is using Terri to bring down the right?! But God has brought the right this woman, whose consciousness is questionable, but will martyr herself for them? Is that how God works??? And on Easter....how appropriate. Have our enlightened leaders even bothered to take a look at the polls that indicate most "conservative" voters don't even support federal intervention in this matter? And, apparently, some guy has offered money to have Terri's husband killed.

And then Bush, after signing Schiavo Law says it's better to err on the side of life. So does that mean no more death-penalty? Stricter gun control? No drilling in ANWR? What the *hell* does that mean? More money for AIDS in Africa? How about more money for AIDS here? No more Iraq-style wars? Does anyone else feel sick?

And now the news outlets, in their orgasmic furor to keep up with this story, have taken to interviewing "experts" on Terri's condition, like Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Florida neurologist who examined Terri in 2002, and who insists that Terri is not in a permanent vegetative state. Thanks Salon for this:

"Hammesfahr's professional credibility has in fact come into question before. In 2001, the Florida Department of Health accused him of falsely advertising a neurological treatment and exploiting a patient for financial gain, according to a report from the Associated Press today. With regard to Hammesfahr's views on the Schiavo case, Dr. Lawrence J. Schneiderman, a bioethicist at University of California, San Diego, told the AP, 'He's a quack, to put it the politest way I can.'"

I can't even begin to imagine what Terri would say if she were able to understand what's happened, though the Washington Post does a good job of guessing. This poor woman, whose parents want their daughter, whose husband feels it's not fair to keep her alive, who mostly likely got into this mess because of an eating disorder, would probably laugh, if she could, at how absurd this is.