Living Will

If there's one thing we can learn from the Terri Schiavo situation, it's the importance of making your wishes for how you should be treated if you become severely incapacitated clearly and unambiguously known ahead of time. In the U.S. the mechanism for this is commonly referred to as a Living Will. Had Terri Schiavo, who is severely brain-damaged and in a persistent vegetative state, had one of these documents perhaps the religious/political circus that is going on down in Florida and in Congress might have been avoided.

Congress has actually had the amazingly ghoulish gall to subpoena Terri Schiavo, among others - according to one report, so they could see her for themselves. What scumbags. If they really want to get a good idea what a person in a persistent vegetative state looks like, perhaps they should trot off to a hospital in the regions they represent and ask to have a look. It's not a common thing, but it's certainly not a situation unique to one woman in Florida.

Don't let this happen to you. And for what it's worth:

I, the author of this blog, whose true identity is known to many people, hereby declare that I do not wish to be kept in a persistent vegetative state by artificial or extraordinary means.

Please, if you know me, please make sure this wish is respected, if it ever comes to that.