After what appears to be a ccoling-down period, Terri Schiavo's autopsy report was released yesterday, and it should cause some embarrasment, at least among some politicians who took her parents' side in this sordid debacle.
It turns out this poor woman's brain had atrophied to half its size, that she was blind and had probably lost all but the most primary functions. There was no evidence of abuse, and it would have taken her something like another ten years to die if she had been kept in her vegetative state.
They doubt she collapsed as a result og bulimia but don't really know what could have caused it. Her parents are still speculating that her husband was the doer.
Nothing in this tragic story resolves the question when life begins and ends, not should anyone expect it to. Conservatives may have done their own cause a disservice by using Schiavo as their ehm poster child. I suspect that the vast majority of people would not want to be kept “alive” in the kind of state she was in, or that anyone would want to be put on TV in that state. One could be tempted to ask Bill Frist to publish the contents of his living will.
One can only hope that for the people who loved her, Terry Schiavo's memory will be for a blessing, vivid for her vitality and happiness. For the rest of us, who had no business butting into her life and death, it should serve as a reminder that individuals should not become political causes unless they consent to it.
Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.
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