Again I completely agree and there are times where both sides are equally right or equally wrong, or when right and wrong simply can't be assigned. I don't see this case as one of them. To me the result in the Schiavo case was a crime.
> or we can believe her husband because what would his
> motive to refuse let this thing go other than fulfilling his wife's
> wishes (he already got his insurance money and any court would
> grant him a divorce).
There's always the possibility that Michael was in some way responsible for causing Terri's injury. In that case, her ability to tell what happened might not promote his best interests.
> But the bottom line is that we do not know
> and we will never know, and that makes a lot of people uneasy.
Evidence of fascism also makes a lot of people uneasy.
>That anxiety creates a perfect opportunity for moral entrepreneurs,
>"mountebanks" (as HL Mencken would say it), and kindred moralizing
> scum telling people what to think, to cash in. A single individual
> tragedy with no solution has been transformed into "the case of
> ____" - the case of right to die, the case of parental rights, the
> case of right to life, the case of care for the disabled, the case
> of government intervention, and so on.
If it were that open-ended, I might agree, but it wasn't in this case. The state killed an innocent person when there were loved ones who wanted her alive and were willing to care for her. Real solutions don't get much easier than that! And this real solution was tossed in the trash because one man and his siblings says she wouldn't have wanted to live? No one should have that power and no state should grant it when the least doubt remains. There is plenty of room for doubt about Terri's wishes. There is also plenty of reason to doubt Michael's motivations.
>The only civilized thing one can say in this case is that there is
> nothing that can be said with any semblance of veracity or done
> about it, so let's just honor the victim and remain silent.
What's the worst motivation that the parents could have had in wanting to care for Terri? How does it compare with the worst motivation Michael may have had?
I'm not good at silence...
--tully