--- In [email protected], Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > By ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Perspective Editor > Published March 27, 2005 > ------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- > > Like many of you, I have been compelled by recent events to prepare a more > detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues. Here's what > mine says: > > * In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical > authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish > semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me. > > * I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a > bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank > accounts. > > * I want my wife to ruin the rest of her life by maintaining an > interminable vigil at my bedside. I'd be really jealous if she waited less > than a decade to start dating again or otherwise rebuilding a semblance of > a normal life. > > * I want my case to be turned into a circus by losers and crackpots from > around the country who hope to bring meaning to their empty lives by > investing the same transient emotion in me that they once reserved for Laci > Peterson, Chandra Levy and that little girl who got stuck in a well. > > * I want those crackpots to spread vicious lies about my wife. > > * I want to be placed in a hospice where protesters can gather to bring > further grief and disruption to the lives of dozens of dying patients and > families whose stories are sadder than my own. > > * I want the people who attach themselves to my case because of their deep > devotion to the sanctity of life to make death threats against any judges, > elected officials or health care professionals who disagree with them. > > * I want the medical geniuses and philosopher kings who populate the > Florida Legislature to ignore me for more than a decade and then turn my > case into a forum for weeks of politically calculated bloviation. > > * I want total strangers - oily politicians, maudlin news anchors, ersatz > friars and all other hangers-on - to start calling me "Bobby," as if they > had known me since childhood. > > * I'm not insisting on this as part of my directive, but it would be nice > if Congress passed a "Bobby's Law" that applied only to me and ignored the > medical needs of tens of millions of other Americans without adequate > health coverage. > > * Even if the "Bobby's Law" idea doesn't work out, I want Congress - > especially all those self-described conservatives who claim to believe in > "less government and more freedom" - to trample on the decisions of > doctors, judges and other experts who actually know something about my > case. And I want members of Congress to launch into an extended debate that > gives them another excuse to avoid pesky issues such as national security > and the economy. > > * In particular, I want House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to use my case as > an opportunity to divert the country's attention from the mounting > political and legal troubles stemming from his slimy misbehavior. > > * And I want Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to make a mockery of his > Harvard medical degree by misrepresenting the details of my case in ways > that might give a boost to his 2008 presidential campaign. > > * I want Frist and the rest of the world to judge my medical condition on > the basis of a snippet of dated and demeaning videotape that should have > remained private. > > * Because I think I would retain my sense of humor even in a persistent > vegetative state, I'd want President Bush - the same guy who publicly > mocked Karla Faye Tucker when signing off on her death warrant as governor > of Texas - to claim he was intervening in my case because it is always best > "to err on the side of life." > > * I want the state Department of Children and Families to step in at the > last moment to take responsibility for my well-being, because nothing bad > could ever happen to anyone under DCF's care. > > * And because Gov. Jeb Bush is the smartest and most righteous human being > on the face of the Earth, I want any and all of the aforementioned > directives to be disregarded if the governor happens to disagree with them. > If he says he knows what's best for me, I won't be in any position to > argue. > > Robert Friedman is editor of Perspective. He can be reached at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > � Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
can anyone read this? it is messeed up on my computer To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
