See what I mean about conservatives being, well, stupid? Jay Nordlinger:

But before I quit altogether, I ask a question (not an original one): What would it hurt? Who would be hurt by Mrs. Schiavo’s continuing to be fed ? by her not being starved to death? I mean, it’s no skin off the New York Times’s nose, right? No skin off Loretta Sanchez’s. Her parents and siblings want her. Michael Schiavo can “move on” ? can obtain a divorce, marry his girlfriend, wash his hands of the old wife. But no, he has to have “closure,” in the form of Terri Schiavo’s death (by starvation ? did I mention that?). And his supporters, for sick reasons of their own, also have to have her dead. She has to be gotten out of the way. Her life is a rebuke to them, somehow.

Dear Jay,
The person it would hurt is Terri Schiavo, a woman who told her husband and brother-in-law that the last thing she’d want is the indignity of a living death.

I know that uncomfortable truth doesn’t quite work with your tortured Mengele analogy, but there it is.

It’s fascinating to me, how Terri Schiavo has mutated into a non-entity. She’s nothing more than a symbol, a Thing To Be Acted Upon. God forbid that her voice be heard in the matter.

And heard, it was. Her brother-in-law says she made it quite clear after watching what the Schiavo family went through, watching their mother being kept alive artificially: “I would never want to go through that.” She made her wishes clear, and the courts noted that.

Of course, the voice of a woman is only worth something to certain people when it says what they want to hear. And it’s a sad fact that our families of origin may understand us least, even to the point of outright denial. “She would have wanted it.” No matter what she actually said, the magic of Telepathic Parenthood should hold sway, infantilizing a grown woman who counted on her husband to be strong and protect her if the day ever came that she couldn’t protect herself.

No matter how much they love her, her family’s refusal to accept her wishes has only turned Terri into a giant, floppy doll.

My mother and I were talking about a relative who’s dying of cancer, and now she’s declined further treatment. Mom was very upset and saw it as “giving up.”

“I would do the same thing,” I said. “If what I had was terminal, I’d rather die naturally than put myself through pointless chemotherapy. That stuff is awful.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” my mother said.

No, you wouldn’t.

Yes, I would. And that’s why I’m glad my mother, whom I love, will never be in the position to make that decision for me. Because she thinks she knows me in a way that she doesn’t.

“What would it hurt?” you say. You’re not quite bright, are you, Jay?

It would hurt Terri. You remember her: the woman who was so sensitive about the way she looked, it killed her.

You want to talk about Mengele, yet it never occurs to you the people who are working so hard to re-animate a corpse might be the evil scientists here.

You should be ashamed. But since you’re a conservative - frequently wrong, but never in doubt - that won’t be an issue.

Sincerely,
SG