Deathwatching

Talk about a morbid society.

We spent countless days hearing and watching Terri Schiavo slip into death as she was left on her own after her feeding tube was removed. Terri, who doctors say was severely mentally handicapped after an eating disorder caused her to slip into a coma, told her husband that she did not want to be hooked up to a machine if she could not live on her own. He was carrying out her wishes (sans a legal document called a "living will") and ended up being lionized for his decisions. Yeah, I know there area two sides to every story and I'm sure I'm not getting both of them. I'm not going to get in the middle of this with a long drawn out opinion. But I will say this whole case is a good lesson in setting up a living will.

If I specify in my living will (with sound mind & judgment) that if I become incapacitated in some way that I do not want to be kept alive by tubes & monitors -- even to the extent that if I have no quality of life left -- I desire to be euthanized, then the medical team has no other choice but to follow my wishes.

Most folks when they get married at an early age never think about setting up a will of any kind. This is about as stupid as buying a car & not setting up insurance.

Now for the family of Terri Schiavo, all they got was a media circus as everyone watched her slowly die. Here's the wild thing about this: I heard on the news that some individuals were willing to pay their own money to keep her alive. Now, if my father or mother were in this situation, why wouldn't someone do this for me? How silly. While this deathwatch was going on, all the kooks and maniacs were parading around in front of news cameras ...some even were allowed to open their mouths on national TV... and turning the whole process into a mockery.

Where are these loonies when it is being debated on whether or not to abort a baby?

Where are these bozos as another deathwatch is literally following right after Schiavo's death? The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church lies in the Vatican slipping in and out of consciousness. Did they remove HIS feeding tube? He chose to leave this earth in his Vatican apartment. Not in a hospital. Where are all the maniacs screaming at the biships & priests demanding that the Pontiff be placed in a facility where they can keep him alive? What is the difference?

The thing that is most morbid is that now we have two deathwatches in a row ... and it is the primary focus of all the media attention. The whole nation is fixated on dying. What is wrong with this???

You know what I've been doing? Ive been celebrating life by totally immersing myself in my two little boys. I am soaking up everytime they repeatedly say, "Daddy!" - even if it's the 467th time today. I am giving them my undivided attention when they ask me something. I am telling them about their family...their other relatives from whom they decended. I am exploring their world and re-examining mine.

When this whole deathwatch is over, can we please try a little lifewatching for a while?