Comments on: Keeping Options Open http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/ Politische Kommentare mit Snarkenremarken Mon, 14 May 2012 18:16:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Xrlq http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46727 Xrlq Thu, 09 Feb 2006 21:22:24 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46727 <blockquote>If that were truly the case, I suspect we wouldn’t even bother with the trouble and expense of putting our pets down. We'd just let 'em die a slow, painful death. Or turn them out into the wild and not wash our hands of the whole thing.</blockquote> Oh, please. I didn't say we don't value animal life at all, only that we don't value it anywhere near as much as we (most of us, anyway) value human life. Euthanizing a pet is cheap and easy, and eliminates the only thing we do care about with animals: needless suffering to prolong a life that we didn't think was really worth prolonging in the first place. In Haleigh's case, I don't see how anyone can seriously defend something as weasely as "if the initial prognosis proved true." Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but how the hell could anyone know when the girl had only been in a coma for a week? You seem to be arguing that Mass's bizarre eagerness to conclude no hope of recovery will somehow prove justified if, by sheer coincidence, they happen to have guessed correctly.

If that were truly the case, I suspect we wouldn’t even bother with the trouble and expense of putting our pets down. We’d just let ‘em die a slow, painful death. Or turn them out into the wild and not wash our hands of the whole thing.

Oh, please. I didn’t say we don’t value animal life at all, only that we don’t value it anywhere near as much as we (most of us, anyway) value human life. Euthanizing a pet is cheap and easy, and eliminates the only thing we do care about with animals: needless suffering to prolong a life that we didn’t think was really worth prolonging in the first place.

In Haleigh’s case, I don’t see how anyone can seriously defend something as weasely as “if the initial prognosis proved true.” Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but how the hell could anyone know when the girl had only been in a coma for a week? You seem to be arguing that Mass’s bizarre eagerness to conclude no hope of recovery will somehow prove justified if, by sheer coincidence, they happen to have guessed correctly.

]]> By: tgirsch http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46724 tgirsch Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:50:07 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46724 <blockquote>We put our pets down because we don’t value animal life nearly as much as some of us value human life.</blockquote>If that were truly the case, I suspect we wouldn't even <i>bother</i> with the trouble and expense of putting our pets down. We'd just let 'em die a slow, painful death. Or turn them out into the wild and not wash our hands of the whole thing. The crime here, if there is one, is not pushing for an end to artificial life support; it's doing so in a case where such support has a reasonable chance of effecting a recovery. If the initial prognosis proved true, and she had no real chance of recovering, then in my estimation, there's simply nothing wrong here.

We put our pets down because we don’t value animal life nearly as much as some of us value human life.

If that were truly the case, I suspect we wouldn’t even bother with the trouble and expense of putting our pets down. We’d just let ‘em die a slow, painful death. Or turn them out into the wild and not wash our hands of the whole thing.

The crime here, if there is one, is not pushing for an end to artificial life support; it’s doing so in a case where such support has a reasonable chance of effecting a recovery. If the initial prognosis proved true, and she had no real chance of recovering, then in my estimation, there’s simply nothing wrong here.

]]> By: Xrlq http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46656 Xrlq Thu, 09 Feb 2006 06:39:12 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46656 Nah. We put our pets down because we don't value animal life nearly as much as some of us value human life. It was bad enough taking Michael Schiavo's word over what his incapicitated wife's wishes supposedly were; at least here we had an adult who was capable of making such decisions, and who had languished in her state for years without showing signs of getting better. This time it's a child, who was much too young to have consented to any such thing, and who also has a decent chance of getting better. Nah. We put our pets down because we don’t value animal life nearly as much as some of us value human life. It was bad enough taking Michael Schiavo’s word over what his incapicitated wife’s wishes supposedly were; at least here we had an adult who was capable of making such decisions, and who had languished in her state for years without showing signs of getting better. This time it’s a child, who was much too young to have consented to any such thing, and who also has a decent chance of getting better.

]]> By: tgirsch http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46645 tgirsch Thu, 09 Feb 2006 04:02:42 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46645 <b>Pendelton:</b> You're missing the (still) very real possibility that euthanasia could be the most merciful course of action. We treat our pets better than we treat people. Pendelton:

You’re missing the (still) very real possibility that euthanasia could be the most merciful course of action. We treat our pets better than we treat people.

]]> By: pendelton http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46425 pendelton Tue, 07 Feb 2006 23:20:21 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46425 This is why liberals are losing politically. What mercy is there for this child? None, where government bureaucracy is involved. Shame on government. And shame on all those liberals who created this horror of a governnment. This is why liberals are losing politically. What mercy is there for this child? None, where government bureaucracy is involved. Shame on government. And shame on all those liberals who created this horror of a governnment.

]]> By: tgirsch http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46422 tgirsch Tue, 07 Feb 2006 22:30:52 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46422 Correction, not a capital crime; Mass. doesn't have the death penalty. "Just" a murder charge. Correction, not a capital crime; Mass. doesn’t have the death penalty. “Just” a murder charge.

]]> By: tgirsch http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46421 tgirsch Tue, 07 Feb 2006 22:24:13 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46421 Hmm. If her condition really is better than advertised, this puts is in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, we can't have the state prematurely pulling life support just to save expense (or, in this case, to expidite a capital charge); on the other hand, we can't let the guy who beat her in the first place make her medical decisions either. Seems to me the correct solution is in the absence of a blood relative or legal guardian not charged with putting her in a near-death state in the first place, appoint a guardian to make such decisions, rather than turning her over to a state bureaucracy. Hmm. If her condition really is better than advertised, this puts is in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, we can’t have the state prematurely pulling life support just to save expense (or, in this case, to expidite a capital charge); on the other hand, we can’t let the guy who beat her in the first place make her medical decisions either.

Seems to me the correct solution is in the absence of a blood relative or legal guardian not charged with putting her in a near-death state in the first place, appoint a guardian to make such decisions, rather than turning her over to a state bureaucracy.

]]> By: Not really John Cole or Andrew Sullivan http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46419 Not really John Cole or Andrew Sullivan Tue, 07 Feb 2006 22:13:26 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46419 Insane meanie rotten THEOCONS! Are taking over our RIGHTS to Kill People who are DYING anyway. But not like dying in the sense that they're dying cause like everyone is dying but dying in the sense like, we're going to do something to make sure they die. Because of the RIGHT TO DIE! Insane meanie rotten THEOCONS! Are taking over our RIGHTS to Kill People who are DYING anyway. But not like dying in the sense that they’re dying cause like everyone is dying but dying in the sense like, we’re going to do something to make sure they die. Because of the RIGHT TO DIE!

]]> By: See-Dubya http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/comment-page-1/#comment-46416 See-Dubya Tue, 07 Feb 2006 20:45:46 +0000 http://xrlq.com/2006/02/07/keeping-options-open/#comment-46416 I would call that an affirmative act in a conspiracy to commit murder. I would call that an affirmative act in a conspiracy to commit murder.

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