The Right and Left of the Right to Die

[deek]

Granted - more than granted, enthusiastically agreed - the Bushies, red-staters and fundamentalists are arch-hypocrites who profess to care about one brain-dead woman while ignoring, nay, promoting, hunger, mass murder, torture, and misery around the world.

~snip

Doctors say Terri Schiavo is in a vegetative state, has no meaningful functions, and does not experience suffering as she dies. Since when do we believe the doctors? I thought we leftists were skeptical, even scornful, of the authority of mainstream medicine. Now all of a sudden the neurologists are our leaders?

And the husband. Since when are we devotees of the sanctity of heterosexual marriage rights? How do we know he, and only he, has the best interests of his wife at heart? The fact that the courts chose to believe his version of the story doesn't pull weight with those of us who have seen more than a few unjust court decisions, some of them involving the sanctity of marriage and in particular the rights of husbands.

~snip

Before we take on the right to die too enthusiastically, let's make sure everyone has an equal right to live. If we don't, the right to die, like everything else in this society, will reflect the gulf between those whose lives are valued and those whose lives are deemed worthless. The morality of our progressive movements must be based on the equal and priceless value of each individual life. This is the real right to life, one we can't afford to cede to the promulgators of war, the death penalty, and global immiseration.

Naomi Jaffe is Executive Director of Holding Our Own Women's Foundation in Albany, NY and a former member of the Weather Underground.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0328-26.htm

[Pithlet]

1. Since when did lefties mistrust modern medicine?

Not this lefty. One of many misconceptions in this editorial.

While I'm at it, since when did most lefties want to weaken the marriage contract as it is, when we're fighting to allow that contract for all people? What is the point of fighting for equal rights when we want to weaken those rights?

Sorry, but she is way off base, here.

[The Witch]

2. We don't necessarily believe-the-doctors...

as she says.

Since when do we believe the doctors? I thought we leftists were skeptical, even scornful, of the authority of mainstream medicine. Now all of a sudden the neurologists are our leaders?

Yeah, we can be skeptical. That's why you're supposed to take an active role in your own care, get all your options, seek second opinions, etc.

Well, in this case there have been FIFTEEN opinions weighed by the courts and based on medical evidence.

When you distrust that, it's no longer skepticism. It's pushing your agenda at the expense of the system.