Shiavo, RIP

[alexpgp]

I managed to get through the whole Terri Shiavo thing with a minimum exposure to the lunacy that hounded the woman from all sides in the last days of her life. And I would have gotten along quite well, thank you, without having learned, via Wired News, that her ever-loving (sorta) husband (sorta) arranged for the woman to die

a "calm, peaceful and gentle death" at about 9 a.m., a stuffed animal under her arm, flowers arranged around her hospice room, [according to] George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney.

To tell you the truth, that description bothered me. What I found particularly irritating was a second quote attributed to the attorney (which was removed from later versions of that AP story):

"Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern here was to provide for Terri a peaceful death with dignity. This death was not for the siblings, and not for the spouse and not for the parents. This was for Terri."

Pardon me while I experience just a touch of cognitive dissonance. For some time, in those moments before I could get to the remote on the rare occasions when I did try to find out what was happening in the world (beside the Shiavo and Jackson sideshows), I recall being exposed to a fairly convincing stream of comments from People Who Ought To Know™ assuring the public that the anthropomorphic collection of tissue that once was Terri Shiavo was not really a person, but a vegetable. Presumably, this made pulling its feeding tube not much different from, say, deciding to not water the geraniums in the sunroom any more.

But knowing that her ever-loving (sorta) husband (sorta) Mike flowered up the room for and put a stuffed animal under the arm of a "vegetable" solely so that it could, in the words of his paid mouthpiece, "die with dignity" makes me wonder just how sincerely he believed he was bidding goodbye to a "vegetable" this morning.

Cheers...

UPDATE: Although the second quote was removed from the story, the quote can be found on another Wired News page (for now), here.

Comments

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily true. It was still his wife's body, after all--some emotional connection would be expected. (And on the subject of his relationship with the woman who is mother to his two children, I'll just mention that his in-laws encouraged him to date before their relationship went so spectacularly sour.)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I agree. I'd expect some connection, too. Which is why the words to the effect that all of this was for Terri only, and not for the spouse or anyone else, sit so poorly with me.

Cheers...

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

I hadn't noticed that gap in the coverage, to be honest. Thanks for bringing this up.

[rillifane.livejournal.com]

Can you think of anything he might have done in those final moments that would not subject him to criticism?