Post Mortem: the Schiavo-Schindler Affair

Where do I really stand vis à vis the whole mess created by the fight over Terri Schiavo's fate?

The way I look at it, this wasn't about the right to life vs. dying with dignity.

It wasn't about conservative vs. liberal.

Neither was it about Catholicism/X-tianity vs. humanism, husband vs. inlaws, religion, states' rights vs. individual rights, privacy, publicity, money, health care or even love.

It was all about principle and timeliness.

Had anyone really given a damn about Terri, she wouldn't have tried all those fad diets to make her slim and eventually caused her untimely cardiac arrest.

Had anyone given a damn about Terri, the Schindlers would've kept their daughter and she would've been alive today.

Terri would've had more tests earlier so that there would be faint hope of recovery.

There still would've been more malpractice money to go around.

There would've been no endless court battles and costly lawyers getting hired and fired. President W. and Governor Jeb would not have gone through the trouble of signing special bills as a result of such a case.

In the end, the whole case has been mishandled right from the start. Had the Schindlers not abdicated their guardianship to Michael Schiavo, there would be no median circus surrounding Terri's plight. Had Michael Schiavo made up his mind regarding Terri's fate much sooner, the whole matter would've been resolved a long time ago.

Instead, we have Michael and Satan (a.k.a. George Felos), playing all the courts like little violins saying that Terri would've wanted to go this way. EIGHT YEARS AFTER THE FACT????!!!??!?!? Give me a fucking break! What kept him so long? What's with that brain-fart, Michael?

Principles. Timeliness. Lack of foresight. Lack of a proper will, living or otherwise (aren't we adults guilty of that kind of negligence, sometimes?). And at the source, the quest for a perfect body and the limitations of modern medical science. In the end, they all killed Terri.

And even after her death, the family feud continiues. Will it ever end? Maybe not.