Terri Schiavo - The End of the Affair (John Leo)

A last post on Terri Schaivo for a while is this link to an article by John Leo. He notes some of the most disturbing aspects of the case: the behaviour of some supporters of Terri, and their threatening behaviour and radical language; the amazing lack of liberal support for Terri and their amazing support of governmental non-intervention in family affairs, and the dreadful coverage in the media of the case.

Another intersting recent item worthy of note was the recent poll by zogby (HT: Justin Taylor). The polls taken by ABC and other news bodies were very biased in their wording, and gave results that made it seem around 70% of the population wanted Terri to die. However, the Zogby poll asked this question:

If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water.

These were the facts in the case of Terri Schiavo, it's just that the media didn't really let the public know. The poll resulted in 79% saying in such a case, the patient should not have food and water removed, with only 9% saying they should.

My final thought that just stuck me is this: the indifference of people to the whole case. The facts were readily availabvle over the internet at many, many sites, yet most people were willing simply to accept the media reports as factual, and not really get interested in the issue for themselves. That's worrying, for indifference could lead to many, many bad decisions in this country...