On Schiavo: A More Profound Thinker than Me

The New York Times has a great column by a woman who faced end of life issues with her father. Read it, but here are some highpoints:

...I could not help but imagine how violating and inappropriate it would have felt if politicians had weighed in on our decisions about Daddy last November. There are a number of people I would trust to make informed and humane decisions about my father; neither the president nor any member of Congress is among them. ...

And then there is this bit, that addressed my earlier life-cycle argument better than I did:

For me, it all boils down to a simple question: when does saving a life mean stealing a death? For a year we allowed our father to be treated in hospitals for pneumonias that would have probably ended his life. But what life were we saving? Not one he would have wanted. We let our own emotions cloud our decision-making. Alzheimer's stole my father's mind, and it was wrong to let anything cheat him of the death he would have wanted, too.

Politicians should stop grandstanding. And Christians should keep all parties involved in our prayers.