Re: Who's Really Behind Promotion of The Da Vinci Code?

Okay, let me try to answer a few things at once.

First, to Bud--Terry Schiavo was not brain dead. Had she been
brain dead, there would have been no issue. It is common in the laws
of all states that life support can be withdrawn from people who are
brain dead, since actual brain death is in fact death. (Those
"automatic" functions cease, for instance.)

Second, I don't have anything against the Oregon law, as far as I
understand it. It allows doctors to give patients the means to kill
themselves if they want those means. Hell, I'd go further. I'd dump
the entire system of requiring "prescriptions" for certain drugs and
let people have what they wanted as they wanted them, for whatever
reason.

Third, what I DO disagree with is the kind of "physician assisted
suicide" where you get to get your doctor to actively do something to
you to kill you. I think that ought to be against the law, period. I
don't think it is in anybody's interests to allow it. The example of
Holland is horrific, and inevitable.

Fourth, in the cases of patients who are rendered unable to make
decisions for themselves, I would allow parents, guardians, spouses,
whoever to remove any care BUT the supply of food and water. I would
ONLY allow the removal of food and water IF the patient him or herself
had left a signed, notarized living will requesting such action in the
circumstances. I would like to see state laws tightened up so that "I
heard my wife say once" was not evidence that would allow such removal.
No signed living will, no removal of food and water, no matter what
hubby says he wife said once over drinks at Spago.

Fifth, if Mississippi bans all abortions and a woman there wants
one, she can go to Connecticut, Massachuetts, New York, Illinois or any
one of the more than a dozen states that have laws on the books that
would continue to legality of abortions if Roe is overturned. Sorry,
I just can't buy the "if she doesn't have a place to go RIGHT THERE,
she's sunk" argument. 87% of all American counties have no abortion
provider right this minute. Women travel. If Roe falls and you're
worried about how poorer women are going to negotiate these things,
join one of the many existing fund groups that provide things like
referrals, transportation, temporary housing, etc, to women who need to
travel to get abortions.

Sixth, the issue in abortion is not, for me, "choice." I always
thought that was a silly idea to begin with. I've never for a moment
doubted that what is in the womb is a child, and as fully human as me.
Or Terry Schiavo. Nevertheless, I support a woman's right to terminate
a pregnancy at any point in the entire nine months, on the principle
that no person can be required to put his physical body (his blood and
skin and bone, NOT his time or effort) to the use and/or benefit of
another against his will. If we got to the point where the technology
existed to get the fetus out alive, then I would say that women who
wanted to terminate a pregnancy would be required to do that rather
than kill it, but ending the pregnancy itself (the use of her body) can
never be denied as soon as she reaches the point where she no longer
consents to the use.

Seventh, as to Annie's thing about how pro-lifers are "hypocrites"
because they don't seem to care what happens to the child after it's
born, I've never understood that argument either. Is every opponent of
capital punishment a hypocrite because he doesn't also care about
prisoner rehabilitation programs? Is it really impossible to oppose
what you consider to be outright, cold blooded murder without also
signing on to a whole host of social programs? What if you
simultaneously think that those social programs do more harm than good
to the people they "help"?

I think that covers most of it, except to add my voice to
Cheryl's by saying that I have first hand experience of the "yuck"
factor, since every test known to humankind said that my older son was
going to be born severely mentally retarded, blind and probably
physically handicapped in a number of ways. I was under absolutely
ridiculous pressure to abort both in the UK and here--here, I was told
by the first doctor I saw that he would refuse to deliver me if I
didn't "come to my senses." In the UK, I was once backed into a corner
in a room with two doctors and three nurses all trying to force me to
"be realistic."

This is my older son we're talking about. The one who just left
high school with 10 APs with scores of 4 or above, six SAT scores of
800, and enough college admission letters to choke a horse. He was
also the strongest man in his boat at crew.

Jane Haddam
http://www.janehaddam.com

.

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