Following are some of our readers’ responses to “The Schiavo case: Bush and Congress trample on science and the Constitution,” “Democrats complicit with Christian right, Republicans in Schiavo case” and “Bush, Congress intervene in Terri Schiavo case: political thuggery in the service of reaction”
In regards to the Terri Schiavo case, “This is a complex case with serious issues, but in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life”—President Bush. Hence, he must be changing his point of view on the death penalty, because of it also being a complex moral issue. I hope this perspective is useful.
MR
* * *Over the weekend, listening to the Republicans and the White House playact through this family tragedy, I thought that they might be practicing a dry-run for a national emergency law scenario. It is the only way that they are going to revive a draft. It’s coming.
TS
* * *Thank you for your most recent editorial on the Terri Schiavo case—I too share your outrage and horror. However, for me, hypocrisy hardly captures the brutal insanity of both a Congress and president who at the same time call for cutting Medicaid, and thereby the medicines on which Terri depends, and insisting that Terri’s death be as prolonged as possible. There is so much more that needs to be said about this case. I hope you continue.
TM
* * *Thank you for this article. You have articulated my thoughts and feelings about this case.
DG
* * *When 300,000 people perished in the Asian tsunami, Bush continued his holiday unperturbed. Now, he cuts his vacation short to rush back to Washington to “save” the life of a woman who has been brain-dead for 14 years. The flip side of this hypocritical veneration of human life is callous indifference to the fate of thousands.
EG
South Africa
George W Bush signed the Texas Futile Care Law (and there are others in other states) where a hospital can pull the plug on patients whose long-term care is futile and too expensive for state funds. So where is George coming from here? Bread-and-circus performances, I fear. Keep the media and public off the subjects of Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, etc. In his speech about erring in favor of life, why didn’t George do this when he made the “mistake” of killing thousands of children for the “mistake” of finding no weapons of mass destruction? Or gleefully signing death sentences on people of whom he had no idea of guilt or innocence except through the very imperfect American justice system? Capitalism has never been, is not now, nor ever will be a system erring in favor of life. It will deliberately err in favor of profit. It will deliberately err in favor of religious dogma. It will deliberately err in favor of propaganda, oppression, hegemony and imperialism, all of which consistently result in the deaths of millions. While for the sake of Terri, the plug should be pulled from her, for the sake of the world, the plug must be pulled from Bush and his neo-con-men.
SN
British Columbia
Well done. I love the flora and fauna of Florida, where I have retired. But, hanging over this splendor is the tawdriness of the right-wing basket cases and the repulsiveness of Jeb Bush. Poor Michael Schiavo. Poor me.
RL
Bradenton, Florida