Philosophical Questions

Logical Meme explains well some more of the philosophical issues underlying the Schiavo case that I had been groping for but hadn't articulated this well.

We find elsewhere on Logical Meme the horrifying fact that the question isn't even as it is often posed: who decides, the family or politicians?

Instead, we find these life and death decisions are being made by unelected judges and M-Deity doctors, even against the wishes of the family:

These other two cases allude to a disturbing trend of hospitals making decisions to cease life support apart from (and usually against) family wishes.

One is of a newborn, Sun Hudson, with abnormal lungs that cannot develop. Without a breathing tube, the baby cannot survive. Reportedly, most infants with Sun’s condition die shortly after birth, but Sun hasn’t. Against the wishes of the infant’s mother, the hospital (with court sanction) decided to remove the breathing tube on Sun, citing it was to stop a prolonged and unnecessary suffering.

“Sun's death marks the first time a hospital has been allowed by a U.S. judge to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

Another pending case involves a 68 year old man in a chronic vegetative state who is on life-support. The hospital wants to “pull the plug”, which the man’s family is fighting. As of last week, Texas’s 14th Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction ordering the hospital not to remove the man's life support.

It's high time this aristocracy of "activist" judges is put out to pasture.

Yet the Democrats are obstructing Bush's judicial nominations intended to do just that.

One is eventually forced to wonder about these Democrats, just whose side are they on???

And don't miss this indispensible article by the indispensible Mark Steyn!