>
> Marta hasn't exactly been the picture of rationality in
> this discussion...
For many of us the Schaivo case was only an interesting debate topic; Marta Russell sees it literally as a matter of life-and-death. I think Marta believes it it is a small step from the authorities pulling the feeding tube on Terri Schiavo, for whatever reasons they did so, to those same authorities doing away with Marta Russell because it has become too costly to some hospital corporation to keep her alive. This isn't tinfoil-hat craziness on Marta's part; in 1999 George W. Bush signed legislation called "the Futile Care Act" stipulating exactly that in the state of Texas. Her not-unreasonable perception is not going to induce Marta to play the cool, calm "picture of rationality" when discussing the issue.
Now that this topic is in the public's eye, I'd like to see defenders of Michael Schiavo turn and attack the obscene cruelty of the Texas "Futile Care Act" in particular, and the inhumanity of the U.S.A.'s for-profit health care system in general. In the richest country in the history of mankind, for a hospital company to allow Marta Russell or someone like her to die just because she hasn't enough money to pay their extortionate bills, is naked murder. We should be willing to descend to "bad form" to uphold that position. I'm not saying that because I calculate the terminal-health-care issue is one opponents of the far-Right can use to boost our polls, but because matters like this are precisely the Left's reason to exist.
Yours WDK - WKiernan at ij.net