The Workday Liberal

With the release of dueling books by the parents and husband of Terri Schiavo, the issue of her death is back. On a political level this ought to be welcomed by those of us who believe in not allowing the state to take our end of life decisions away from us. It is apparent that while the right wing wacko's saw this issue as red meat, the rest of the nation drew a decidedly more sane take on the issue, to the continuing embarrassment of the Congress and the President.

One quote from the brother of Ms. Schiavo that I thought needed examining was this:

"Our family will never believe Terri wanted to die this way," Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, said in an interview.

To me the issue is not whether Terri would have chosen to die as she did, but whether she would have chosen to live as she was forced to as the years went by, with this issue being used by the fanatical right for political purposes. The same group that insisted she be kept alive as a vegetable with one breath will use the next breath to harp on the sanctity of marriage. Let me make this clear. My future wife will and ought to have the full authority to speak for me if I ever find myself in similar circumstances, and I have faith she will make those decisions based upon what she knows I would decide if able, and out of love for me. That my friends is what the sanctity of marriage is all about.

So the next time some wingnut friend or family member of yours starts harping on the sanctity of marriage, which is almost always in an effort to deny gays the right to marry, to find out how sacrosanct they really think marriage should be, ask them how they felt about Michael Schiavo's (and Terri's) decision.