Playing God

Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has been removed and I've been ambivalent about it, at best. This is one of those intensely personal experiences, something that is happening to a family and should not be appropriated by politicians or others with agendas that are not necessarily in the best interests of the patient.

I find the machinations of the federal government reprehensible. The federal government has no right to interfere in cases like this, none at all, and the precedent such interference sets is incredibly frightening to those of us who choose to make our own decisions about our own health care.

I think it's easy to make generalizations, I think it's easy to believe one side over another, and to see what you want to see -- a cause you can embrace. In the end, though, Terri Schiavo doesn't belong to any of us, nor do we have the right to make any decisions for her because most of us have never met her when she was a vibrant woman and they have not encountered her now. The truth of her condition is not truly known to to the vast majority of us. For that reason, the decision on whether she should live rests solely with those who are closest to her. Everyone else -- and I'm talking to YOU, Tom DeLay -- needs to butt out.