Defining "Quality of Life"

Unfortunately for Terri Schiavo and her family, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate "Terri's Law," the florida measure set up to prevent the removal of her feeding tube, thus, her death, by slow starvation and dehydration.

Now call me ignorant, but I just can't understand how things got even this far. I mean, how is it that the words of a whoring husband with two illegitimate children, who's just dying to see his wife dead - are given so much credibility when Terri never left any written will saying she wouldn't want to be kep alive under "artificial circumstances"? It seems like it's the word of a scumbag over a defenseless woman, and everyone is siding with the scumbag.

Ultimately, who is to judge what an acceptable "quality of life" is?

A Doctor Rachamim Melamed Cohen, an ailing academic in Israel suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease shatters the conventional quality of life stereotypes.

In the past two years, after being connected to life-sustaining equipment, he has authored two books on educational methods and has three more in the works, one of them on the subject of euthanasia. He also lectures, receives a steady stream of visitors and follows the Daf Yomi, a challenging daily regimen of Talmudic study joined by Jews all over the world.

And indeed, as he notes, the cessation of life-sustaining measures, "pulling the plug," is forbidden by Jewish law.

Unfortunately, there are not many Melamed Cohen's out there.

Just recently, Villanova University decided to dedicate a new section of its library to one it its professors who committed suicide when she was imprisoned for slitting her six-month-old Downe Syndrome affected baby's throat.

And they think they're being compassionate?

Zelda -- http://theurbangrind.blogspot.com

posted by Ace at 08:34 PM

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