The Fear of Death and Dying

Terry Schiavo has finally passed away. Thirteen years after suffering a heart attack induced by bulimia, it's over.

Some observations about the situation. The husband did not let her parents in the last ten minutes of her life. Considering that he's been fighting with them for so long now, I don't blame him. Considering that they have done every single legal maneuver to wrest his guardianship of his wife, I don't blame him. He's a little bitter.

A priest on the side of the parents said that the husband was angry and bitter to the end. No shit!? This is what can be so disappointing about priests. All of them are human and they do some amazingly human stuff like say stupid things.

The woman has been in a permanent vegetative state for the last thirteen years. You would think that the parents would have resolved their fear of death now. But nope, nope, nope. They are just as afraid of letting go of their child as at the start. This brings me to hypothesize that perhaps the parents are actually seeing their own death and are running from it because of FEAR.

It is another characteristic of America and Americans. We have this unerring belief that everyone should live forever. That every life is so sacred. We take it personally when people die. Even people who have completed their purpose in this life. I can't say that this has led to bad results. After all, the rate of industrial accidents have gone way down since unions have fought for safe conditions.

But the continuing advances in medicine lead us to situations where people with no brainwaves are still being kept alive by artificial means. I say that if they can not eat or drink water on their own and no brainwaves, they have met the universe in its entirety.