On Terri Schiavo
Between 5,000 (Khartoum regime's count) and 400,000 persons (Africa Action's) already had perished in Darfur since the crisis become known to the world 2 years ago (notice the huge discripency, which in itself shows how the poor black Africans are so unimportant to find an org to count their death toll)... this was part of a discussion on Darfur that I had last night, in one of the prestigious 'White' colleges of suburban Philadelphia.
It struck me the hypocrisy of the mainstream US media and how it's really represents a morally corrupt system. The right-wing represented by this media (Fox et al) ruptured our ears (Guddo Adhanna) with cheap talk on the poor vegetative Terri Schiavo (talk of all media outlets here in the US, and may be elsewhere, too) yet, not a single word on these thousands who are dying every single moment in Darfur.....
But, why I'm brining this issue here in our homepage?
This sad incident of Ms. Schiavo teaches us a great lessaon, as Magda keeps telling me... the need to have our personal wills written with clear instructions to de-plug (or may be some of us want the plugging to continue) the tubes in case of 'vegetative' condition arises.
In my case, here are my 3 No's (al-La'at al-Thalath) of my will:
It struck me the hypocrisy of the mainstream US media and how it's really represents a morally corrupt system. The right-wing represented by this media (Fox et al) ruptured our ears (Guddo Adhanna) with cheap talk on the poor vegetative Terri Schiavo (talk of all media outlets here in the US, and may be elsewhere, too) yet, not a single word on these thousands who are dying every single moment in Darfur.....
But, why I'm brining this issue here in our homepage?
This sad incident of Ms. Schiavo teaches us a great lessaon, as Magda keeps telling me... the need to have our personal wills written with clear instructions to de-plug (or may be some of us want the plugging to continue) the tubes in case of 'vegetative' condition arises.
In my case, here are my 3 No's (al-La'at al-Thalath) of my will:
- No plugging tubes in case of vegetating
- No waiting period for donating my organs in case I'm clinically dead (I'm an organ donor).
- No burying in a cemetry that does not permit secular or other faith people to be buried within its boundaries (Magda, Nageeb, and Ibrahim know what I mean)
There are many other things I would like us to start discussing here in regard to some important issues of the family future. Retirement plans; Family Trust; General Wills; Disability Trusts; etc.
I need to go now (office closes in few minutes, it's Sat)... let's start this discussion.
Hands off Ms. Schiavo! let her die the way she chose....
Mohamed Elgadi
posted by ina @ 3:30 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:04 PM, March 27, 2005,
Anonymous said…
The Terri Schiavo Case:
I like the article, I give it two
thumbs up! It is sad to see all the government attention is focused on the life of one person, while thousands of human lives perish every day from starvation resulting from civil wars and genocide as what is going on in Dar Fur region in Sudan. Nothing done so far from Bush's Administration but promises. I guess nothing is in the interest of Bush in that plain wide open desert.
I satill don't agree with the idea of depriving any life from the basic necessity it needs: Food
All the means should be used to introduce food into a person's stomach to fulfill this basic need.
Keeping Terri Schiavo alive with this simple procedure of a stomach feeding tube is not iterferance in any way, in fact it is a smart idea
used in all hospitals and nursing homes as a temporary or permanent means of feeding. On the other hand
withholding feeding from a person after being started is a very cruel and inhumane act. This is not the way anyone wants to see a person die! It is not the peaceful death any body wishes for!
If the law does not allow ending
life peacefully using the technology of Euthanasia, then give the basic needs of life which is food and water. Besides, Terri Schiavo did not ask for ending her life this way as her husbands claimed. It is understood that she didn't want to be kept on agressive life support such as
mechanical ventilation or so, but
stomach feeding is the simplest invasive procedure done to secure an easy way of feeding when it can't be through the natural way.
Keeping her alive brings happiness and peace to many people, making life less stressful to them.
Let's not be hypocritical, if Terri's feeding tube is to be removed, are we going to remove feeding tubes of hundreds of patients in very hospital that have similar condition just because one member of the family requeted that?
Mohammed Magdi Elgadi
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