Written by: Beck

That's the headline running on Fox News. That was, as far as I know, the last chance for any sort of intervention for Schiavo.

Thinking back on my Dr. Kevorkian post, something else occurred to me. When Dr. Kevorkian killed a patient, the only pain he inflicted was the insertion of an IV needle. After that, one drug would knock the patient unconscious, and the next drug would stop the heart. Quick. Clean. Painless.

Why in hell can't Terri Schiavo's doctors at least afford her the one dignity of a quick death? I've read a couple of reports observing that she does, indeed, feel & suffer from pain. Dying of thirst is a horrible way to go. Really. Horrible. So why is she being made to suffer like this when the gift of mercy is as close as picking up a pillow to smother her?

All I can conclude is that her doctors, by passively allowing her to die rather than actively bringing about her death, won't have to suffer the same ethical pangs and doubts.

Rachel Lucas has similar thoughts, and observes:

Apparently, though I would be arrested and prosecuted for cruelty if, for example, I tried to starve to death an unconscious, crippled, brain-dead cat - you know, to put it out of its misery that it is somehow suffering even though it's a fucking brain-dead cat - it is perfectly all right with most Americans if a human being is, in literal and actual fact, slowly and deliberately killed by the withholding of food and water.

All rightee then.

Humanity is seriously fucked up. That's all there is to it. Seriously, hopelessly, unforgivably fucked up.

Read the whole thing.

Update: Here's a link to the story.