People have said that to me. I am severely disabled and use a motorized wheelchair as a result of having polio 55 years ago. Terri Schiavo may be even more severely disabled than me, but we are the same in many of the ways we have been discounted and devalued. Doctors told my parents to put me into a "home" and forget about me. He will have no life, they said, move on with your own lives. They ignored the advice. When I went to school, I was teased and made an object of pity. "I would hate to live like you," kids told me. When I went to university, I was told that "at least you still have your mind."When I went to work in the newspaper business, I was expected to remain at an entry level position; when I left to go to graduate school, my work supervisor told a colleague "what else could he ever hope to do?"

People with disabilities in this country are pushed to the ragged edge of our collective consciousness, stereotyped as dependent, unproductive and pitiful. It is not such a long step to considering such persons burdensome and too costly to maintain, and finally and of course regrettably, expendable.

Also read dissenting views from other disabled persons in the comments.

Via an extremely long LGF thread:

From a friend who works with nursing homes: "As for her case, I'm just opening your eyes that this is happening every single day. Feeding tubes removed, vents shut down, people taken off pressers, people signing DNR orders but panicking when they actually begin to suffocate (yet unable to request the DNR orders to be cancelled...you can't talk if you can't breath..some manage to muster help, others just die). I seen this happen with the elderly (mostly), then terminally ill (oncology floors / hospice / nursing homes, etc.) and even children. Its terrible. But, as for people being taken off machines and put to death due to lack of funding, well that is true. So, unfortunately, people fall through the cracks every day. Schiavo is just another victim. I'm not a cruel human being. I'm just saying that I see her case daily. Its horrifying. Perhaps with her death, at least the country would wake up as to what is happening in the world around us."

Also this:

George Felos, Michael Schaivo's attorney, is the author of a book entitled "Litigation as Spiritual Practice." (LOL)

Here's what this highly spiritual character has to say about the Holocaust:

About the Jews, George Felos wrote, "The Jewish people, long ago in their collective consciousness, agreed to play the role of the lamb whose slaughter was necessary to shock humanity into a new moral consciousness. Their sacrifice saved humanity at the brink of extinction and propelled us into a new age." (pg 240)

Felos further wrote, "If our minds can conceive of an uplifting Holocaust, can it be so diffucult to look another way at the slights and injuries and abuses we perceive were inflicted upon us?" (pg 240)

More on Felos and his equally nutty lawyer wife.

I have been saying all week that the Schindlers could have used a better lawyer. Here's some confirmation on that.

Speaking of Felos, here's an interesting timeline of events. Punchline: "Need someone dead? Get a law passed that will assist you in your endeavor."
(Everyone who is anyone is on the board of that hospice, apparently.)

Now that everyone is thinking about making a Living Will, several bloggers are designing templates designed to avoid repeats of the scene in Florida. Copy, paste, and modify as you wish.

Dennis the Peasant: not funny anymore. (But as I write this, she not dead yet.)

A list of liberal/leftist Terri Schiavo supporters.