Greetings Economists,
Bill Lear writes,
What nonsense is this? As I posted on Friday, the neurologist who
examined Terri Schiavo, in detail, flatly refutes this:
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and medical ethicist at the
University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined
Ms. Schiavo on behalf of the Florida courts and declared her to
be irredeemably brain-damaged, said [...] there was no doubt
that Ms. Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. "Her CAT
scan shows massive shrinkage of the brain," he said. "Her EEG is
flat - flat. There's no electrical activity coming from her
brain."
Doyle,
I don't understand what is nonsense about saying that. If you see someone
smile at you, follow you with their eyes, etc., you might feel that way.
That is not denying a vegetative state. What exactly does the neurologist
prove with the point the eeg is flat? It's flat. That doesn't mean it's
barbaric to let her be fed by a feeding tube. What's the value in hunting
around for places to justify pulling her feeding tube?
What's in it for the right to die left to pick a fight here with the
disability rights movement over Schiavo? There are some who claim you
better buy your tickets to Europe to die now. Plan ahead because there is a
plan afoot to deny your precious right to kill yourself. Especially the
disabled rights nutso's are out to keep you alive when you are a vegetable.
Some Economists intone with solemn righteousness about how this costs money
to pay for vegetables and we have other worthy people who need our
attention. So I hear a lot of dog eat dog thinking, and scapegoating emerge
in the left.
I saw briefly a brain scan for Schiavo. I don't remember them labeling the
slice so I don't know whether it was looking down from the top of the head
or not. At any rate this is not a learned discussion about what we do see,
this is just a brief moment in which Bill Lear seems upset by some minor
point from the disabled rights side.
A few days ago Barney Frank, the demo rep from Massachusetts led the charge
against the Bush law in Congress. Now he's leading the charge for disabled
people in the debate in congress for better review of the facts in these
cases. It just might be that laws would be considered that give significant
legal protection to vegetables.
What's in it for the left to condemn that? Well I mean disabled rights
advocates who see themselves on the left will be for it, but what about the
big chunk of leftists who are outraged we would consider Schiavo disabled?
Looks great doesn't it? We're nutso, bizarre, unscientific, etc. I don't
know, is the right to die a real trump of disabled rights here?
You tell me what trumps disabled rights.
thanks,
Doyle
