I received the following "Living Will" from a family member via email this morning. I don't know where it came from or who to attribute it to...but it's funny and encapsulates what many of us here are feeling after this whole Schiavo mess.
more below.
Subject: My New Living Will
I,
_________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind
and
body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.
Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood
politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives
depended on
it.
If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a
cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When
such a
determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and
attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a
day.
Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a
special
law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these
boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the
health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren't in
a
permanent coma.
Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case.
I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge
for
their run for the presidency in 2008, it is my wish that they play
politics
with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.
I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to
legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these
people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on
my
behalf. They should mind their own business, too.
If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a
political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make
his
or her existence a living hell.
_____________
____________
Signature
Witness