The Schiavo "issue" is very similar to the abortion "issue"...

[kentuck]

As it should be. It should be a decision best left to the individual and his/her doctor - not to the government. If the individual is not capable of coming to a decision, then the state should not step in - it should be the decision of the family. That is my opinion.

[spanone]

1. Agreed

[Bat Boy]

2. Are you kidding? It is the SAME as the Abortion issue.

The parents have brought on Randall Terry as their spokesman.

You know. Randall "Bombing Abortion Clinics Is Cool" Terry? Founder of Operation Rescue?

Don't kid yourself. It's exactly the same. And being driven by the same people.

[regnaD kciN]

5. Which is what makes me wonder...

...when I see someone on DU or another "progressive" site expound on how we have to "preserve life" by force-feeding a body with no cerebral-cortex for another dozen or more years: If you can say that a body in a vegetative state, with no hope for recovery, must be kept alive against the wishes of the person when they were conscious, how can you say it's all right to end the life of a human fetus, who (given the few months of gestation) will certainly have a functioning mind and be able to go on to live a fully-human life...which Terri Schiavo will never be able to do?

It seems to me that, if one agrees with forcing her to be kept alive by artificial means, one should also agree that abortions must be outlawed. Anything else is rank hypocricy.

[kentuck]

6. But you and I should have nothing to say about it....

As neither should the state. It is up to the individual and her doctor. If the individual is incapable, then it should be left up to the family. The state should be the last resort - when there was no immediate family.

[regnaD kciN]

8. Correct. But her "immediate family"...

...is her husband. This case is, in its particulars, about whether the state should intervene because other parties disagree, and claim that their wishes should have priority. Similarly, right-to-lifers would have other factors (if nothing else, their own beliefs) take priority over the decision of the pregnant woman.

Let me give you another purely hypothetical case. A woman decides to terminate her pregnancy. The fetus's (or unborn child's, depending on your semantical leanings) father wants the child, and demands to be considered the legal guardian of the fetus/unborn child, with the promise to care for it after it is born. It seems to me that said father has at least as much of a legal ground for demanding that the mother be required to carry the child to term as Schiavo's parents do for demanding that her husband keep her "alive" indefinitely.

[Nite Owl]

3. What are these fundies

so afraid of? They don't trust the American people to make any personal decisions.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Don't they want this woman to get to paradise already? nt

[KoKo]

7. Smoke and Mirrors...Smoke and Mirrors....Smoke and Mirrors.....n/t

[snowbird42]

9. I sure didnt know she was bulimic!!!

Terri Schiavo was not a healthy young woman. Her heart stopped because of a potassium imbalance induced by severe bulimia nervosa.

Hypokalemic cardiac arrests are rare in the population at large, but they all too common in young women with severe eating disorders. Michael Schiavo successfully sued Terri's doctors for failing to diagnose her condition. If there had been an alternate explanation for Terri's condition--like attempted murder by the plaintiff--you would think the doctors Schiavo sued would have brought it up.