The Right to Live, the Right to Die
If there were ever a case for every American to have a living will and a durable power of attorney for health care document his or her possesion, the story of Terry Schiavo is the ultimate example. Caught between a husband who wants to allow her to die with dignity and parents who want to keep her alive at all costs, she's now become a judicial and political pawn, and her case is one of the leading topics of discussion among bloggers.
The Abstract Appeal blog, focusing on Florida law, has an authoritative roundup of the issues without taking sides. And blogger Mark Kleinman discusses other similar cases that are just as difficult but not receiving nearly the publicity as the Schiavo case.
In general, who are bloggers writing about most in this entire affair? To date, her husband and the Florida judge who has consistently ruled in Michael's favor to remove her feeding tube are capturing most of the attention.
Personally, twice in the last 18 months, cousins, aunts and uncles have had to make the wrenching decisions involved with hospice care and feeding tubes, and both times, an aunt and uncle, respectively, experienced good, dignified, peaceful and painless deaths, surrounded by the people they loved. Thank goodness no politicans were circling outside like the opportunistic vultures that they seem to be.
Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Yahoo has purchased Flickr, the photo-image-sharing service many bloggers use. Blogger Jeremy Zawodny provides some perspective.
On the foreign policy front, the Washington Post claims the U.S. used misleading intelligence (hmmm, imagine that!) in its stepped-up efforts against North Korea.
BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Today's graph examines discussion among bloggers about the leading causes of death for American adults.
Posted by Sue MacDonald at March 21, 2005 10:25 AM
