She died 15 years ago, let the meat rest.

[dvandom]

Yes, this is a Terry Schiavo post. Thanks to the media blitz, I know far more about the case than I really cared to. I know that bulimia led to the brain damage. I know that her husband spent eight years trying in vain to find a cure before giving up and starting the long road to pulling the plug. I know that she's lost so much higher-function brain tissue that gerbils can outsmart her. And I already knew that most people fear death so much that they'll fight to the last breath to avoid any implication that it might not be worth keeping a vegetative person alive.

There's no "there" there. Hasn't been for fifteen years. This isn't a case of a functioning mind being trapped in a non-functioning body. Let the shell go already.

Comments

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

How dare you go against the will of Mel Gibson and Patricia Heaton!!!

[zamiel.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to figure out how being a functioning mind trapped in a non-functional body is an argument for keeping her alive.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Well, the idea there is that if her mind is still functioning (and not hopelessly insane after 15 years trapped), there's a chance she'll recover. Or that the extropians can figure out how to download her someday.

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

and then they will download her brain into a robot and she will kill her family in a rage screaming in her cold metallic voice "Why didn't you just let me die?"

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

We can only hope.

[zamiel.livejournal.com]

I figure if you're going to be that big a dreamer, have her cryogenicly frozen and save on the nursing costs.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Looks like one good thing may come from this...the Religious Right may splinter away from the Republican mainstream over this issue.

Of course, this assumes they still remember the case two years from now, which is dubious.