Kerri's Law

15 years. Remember that number. Its important.

You have probably heard about the fight to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo always with a pic of the mom kissing the daughter as if she was still a responding human being. The war has been going on for a long time to end this woman's life. It even went up the the Supreme Court who decided to pass. Now our legislative branch has chosen to get involved with Kerri's Law.

I just find the whole thing appalling. Our system of law worked. The parents and the husband have battled it out back and forth for years. Governors and states have gotton involved. Every check and balance you can think of has been employed. A final decision was made. The right to choose to live..or not live is up to the individial, not the government. But lo! Our "moral" republicans, those who say less government is better, seems to can't help but get government involved on everything. This battle is none of their damn business. They know it but the photo opportunity apparently was just to much to pass up. So here they are once again passing laws that reduce the ability for individuals to make their own damn decisions. Ok that sub rant over.

Now back to the number 15. That is the number of years this woman has been in a vegatative state. Two important pieces of information that the press and the politicans are not always making sure to share. For those that don't know, vegatative state means she has no higher brain wave function. She only has automatic functions like breathing, heart going, digestive process, the basic stuff that occurs without thought, stuff that any lifeform can do. The higher brain functions however are what seperates us humans for everything else. This controls memory, emotion, cognative abilities, association, hell even the ability to walk upright. All things this woman no longer will ever be able to do. She has been this way for 15 years. 15.

Hell thats pretend her parents are not in lala land and this woman can respond. They then are prolonging this womans hell for she is trapped in her body with no means to communicate. For 15 years. You try staying completely still, not blinking, not moving mouth, not even breathing heavier for 15 hours. Don't tell me thats not hell.

But really this woman will not recover. She is nearly brain dead. She is not in a coma. A coma shows higher brain function. A coma means the brain is working, just not well enough. She is in the step after a coma. When the brain functions have degraded even further. Could she recover? Maybe when hell freezes over and we all win the lottery.

The end result is this, no matter how you approach this, she has zero quality of life. The act of living is simply not enough. Hell, look at our society. Its not based on living, its based on quality of life. Everything we do is about improving and expanding that quality. Our justice system is based on punishment by reducing that quality. Our measurement of pleasure, success, goals, everything, is based on quality of life. Yet suddenly we say thats not important. Only that she lives is, which is bullshit. Give the woman her piece. Its time the parents let go and move on with their lives.