Right To Die

It is no secret that I am a card-carrying bleeding heart liberal. Contrary to what the right may want you to think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Conservatives have done a great job in associating the word liberal with evil, do-gooders who want to take all your money for taxes and have the government run everything. Trust me we don’t want to do that. But, I digress.

I try to keep this blog somewhat politics free. Sure my leftist anti-Bush leanings will inevitably come out through osmosis but I try to make a conscious effort to not make this a political forum. I realize as hard as I try some people are going to see things differently. While, I strongly may disagree with them, I don’t want to force my will onto them. (Like the Republicans do.)

However, the case of Terry Schiavo has raised the level of anger in my blood to boiling. So, therefore I must spew out onto this keyboard how pissed off and how hypocritical I feel the right is being on this issue. (As they are on so many, but this one in particular.)

Like I said I am a Democrat. I understand the Republican viewpoints. They want a smaller government, lower taxes, and individual responsibility. While I disagree on some of those principles I do agree with others. However, in my opinion I think the NRA and religious right has taken over that party and therefore I cannot sit idly by while my country continues to cow tail to the Pat Robertson and Robert Reed’s of the world.

It seems the right wants a small government and for it to stay out of affairs only when it suits them. When it comes to a woman’s uterus, the right to die or school prayer, than they feel the government should get involved. For anyone who has read the paper or turned on the news you all know about the case of Terry Schiavo. So, I will not bother to go over the details. What I would like to discuss and get an answer to is why did the federal government get involved in this?

George Bush flew from his precious ranch in Texas to intervene in the case. He forced his will and his parties will into a private legal matter. This is contrary to the entire small government philosophy the right preaches. What makes it all the more puzzling is that in 1999 then Gov. Bush signed a right to die bill into law in Texas. In that bill the spouse was given the authority to terminate a patient’s life if medical evidence showed the patient had no hope for a recovery. Hmm, this almost sounds like a flip-flop.

You know what really boggles my mind, is that if heaven is such a great place and you are so sure of God’s existence than wouldn’t you want someone who is living in a vegetative state to die with a little dignity and start the afterlife with your Lord and savior? This is why I am going to get a living will. There is no way I would ever want to be kept alive in that manner. If I have no chance of recovery than I want that plug pulled. Terry Schiavo told her husband the same thing. Who do you think she confided in more? Her husband who she loved and loved her back and she spent every day of her life with or her parents?

I do not doubt that her parents love their daughter and do not want to see her go. But, I do believe they are putting their own feelings ahead of their daughters. Only a spouse knows the utmost intimate details of their partner’s life. I truly believe her husband when he maintains that she did not want to be kept alive this way.

I just read a great book by Christine Todd Whitman, called It’s My Party Too. It is basically about how the Christian right has taken over the Republican Party and how they are holding the party hostage. The Christian right is an organized, scary, group. The unfortunate thing is that us on the other end are not nearly as organized. Somehow, someway we need to stand up to the right to lifers and religious zealots. Freedom of religion means we are free to be atheists if we want, even if we are not in the majority. Moral laws based on faith have no business being included in a “Small Government.”