31 March 2005

Terri Schiavo RIP Terri Schiavo is dead, God Bless her, her long suffering is over. Unfortunately, as I watch it live on CNN, the circus surrounding her continues, and is likely to continue and reverberate for some time. The whole thing is unbelievably sad, tragic and unbearably distasteful. I must be the only blogger in the world who has not expressed himself on this issue, partly because I have been genuinely torn about the issues involved, partly because I haven't been blogging much, and a technical problem kept me from posting for a couple of weeks. Of all the thousands of blog posts, news articles and talking head items on CNN and elsewhere which have poured out over the last few weeks, mostly over-emotional, slanted and downright misinformed, I have read three which struck a chord with me, mostly because they were unemotional, factual, and examined the issues intelligently. Here they are: in The Economist a week ago, the weblog kuro5hin.org, and in Salon yesterday. All well worth reading and considering. As the heading of the Salon piece suggests, the one thing that Terri Schiavo deserved but was denied, was Death with Dignity. In the humble opinion of this writer, viewing it mostly on CNN, the player who has conducted himself with the most dignity through it all, has been Michael Schiavo. Sadly, her parents, along with sundry priests, lawyers and Right-to-Life advocates, not to mention those wierdos singing hymns and playing the trumpet outside the Hospice a few minutes ago, have dragged the whole affair into the depths of indignity and tawdry emotionalism. I probably should not say that about people who are obviously grieving and have sincere and religious beliefs, but that's just the way I see it. While I'm at it, shame on CNN for endlessly replaying those awful, wrenching, but misleading and four-year-old video clips, for pandering to the worst excesses of extremism and fanaticism, and shame on President Bush and those in the Congress who came dangerously close to flouting the separation of powers integral to the US Constitution. Thankfully they have backed off, realising that there is no political advantage to be gained from it. One of the most distasteful aspects of the whole affair, and one which may have political repercussions. As to the aftermath, the Economist expresses it best: If the legal question is brutally simple, the politics is not. Mrs Schiavo's case has torn apart everything it touches. What began as a personal tragedy has rent asunder first her family, then her state, and is now tearing at the Congress and the nation at large. It has become the touchstone for hard questions: How do we treat the end of life? Who should make decisions about the last days of loved ones, if they cannot do so themselves? Who should police these new areas of bioethics? With some 35,000 people (was that the number I heard?) in a persistent vegetative state in the USA alone, there must be millions of people all over the world facing similar painful situations, and advances in modern medicine and medical insurance combine to make it worse. As for myself, having been in a (thankfully) non-persistent vegetative state in an ICU less than 30 months ago, while dedicated and skilful nursing care, the full panoply of life-support systems, massive doses of antibiotics, and the love and prayers of many people brought me back from septicaemia with mutiple organ failure, and remembering acutely the embarrassment I felt at inflicting such pain and suffering on those who love me, if ever I land up in a similar situation, brain-damaged or otherwise hopelessly incapacitated, my message to loved-ones is: if that is the considered and backed-up diagnosis, pull the plug, move on, remember me as I was when I was well, and devote all of that love, energy, money, medical skill and resources to others who will recover. So be it. Interestingly, my wife Ritsa disagrees. She says only God can make that decision. Well, in the old days, God did decide - Terri Schiavo would have died 15 years ago, and I would have died in December 2002. Medical technology raises new ethical issues, which are not amenable to the simplistic, emotional, right-to-life approaches which have been displayed over the last few weeks. Dignity, my friends, dignity. Update: Two final wraps of this difficult topic: Andrew Sullivan in graceful and sensitive prose, from last week's Sunday Times, provides the most lucid exposition of the case, and Kevin Myers on the Opinion Page of the Sunday Telegraph lays out the ethical conundrums. 8:25:21 PM    comment []

One of the cool things about Flickr, is that if you find someone whose photos you like, you also get their blog address, and that way you get to know them even better.  So today I met Slight Clutter, who takes wonderful photographs, and learnt these interesting facts. 2:26:45 AM    comment []

I'm on Flickr! After reading so much about Flickr, here and elsewhere, I just had to try it. So I did, and I got hooked, and now I'm addicted. What a great experience! If I have any readers, and they are Flickr members, let me know and let's get connected. If not, go get Flickr! My photostream is here. I'd be glad to meet you there. 2:08:06 AM    comment []

The secret of the soul's toil Usually this guy (George Monbiot) writes the biggest load of rubbish, but this is interesting to me: Easter is one of those occasions on which humans entertain a number of contradictory ideas. Christians celebrate a pagan fertility cult, while non-believers make their biannual journey to church. People whose lives are dominated by godless consumption give something up for Lent. A society governed by science engages in the ritual sacrifice and homeopathic magic — eggs and chicks and rabbits — required to induce the Earth to bear fruit. Why? Well, having read this, you might fairly accuse me of drawing wide inferences from limited data, but the work of a soil geologist at the University of Oregon offers such a fascinating possible explanation of some of these contradictions that I cannot resist indulging in speculation. Professor Greg Retallack has spent much of the past few years taking soil samples from the sites of the temples of ancient Greece. He has stumbled on a remarkable phenomenon. There is a strong link, challenged by only a few exceptions, between the identity of the god worshipped at a particular temple and the temple's location. Very good insights. The article tails away towards the end, though.  George back to regular form, inarticulate. 2:00:46 AM    comment []