A new law was just passed in America, stating that the words
'Black' and 'Oriental' – to describe 'non-whites' have been banned. Henceforth,
those of Asian descent are to be called Asian-Americans and those of Congoid
descent are now designated African-Americans, regardless of whether their
lineage traces back to Africa or elsewhere that biological taxon may originate.
And regardless what people of those races/ethnicities call
themselves. And nothing has been said about what people of Hispanic/Latino
descent are to be called. I wonder why they were omitted?
While people in China marvel at the social advances in
America, I and others shake our head at the seeming senselessness of labeling
and classifying people to begin with. Why not just call all American citizens
'Americans'?
Meanwhile...
Garry Kelley suffered a heart attack while riding a bus in
Hot Springs, Arkansas. His brain was deprived of oxygen for over 3 minutes
while waiting for the paramedics. Nevertheless, when the ambulance arrived they
resuscitated Garry, and then whisked him away to the hospital intensive care
unit. He never regained consciousness. His family were all notified. My dear
Sister, Donna, took emergency leave from work and rushed to his side.
NOTE: I call Donna my Sister because we've known each other
all of our lives, not because we are related by blood. We were related by
marriage at one point, as she was my brother's wife. She is no longer my
sister-in-law, just the sister of my heart.
When she got to Hot Springs, her brother was hooked up to
life sustaining machinery. Because of the oxygen deprivation and the severity
of the heart attack, doctors did not expect Garry to live if life support were
withdrawn. The family, by now all gathered by the bedside, agreed to take their
eldest brother off life support on Friday morning.
The following Tuesday, he was still alive: unconscious, and
with an infection in his lungs but breathing on his own (with a bit of oxygen
pumped up his nose). Apparently he can feel pain because he is being regularly
dosed with morphine. The doctor voted to move him to hospice care, and brother
Terry will stay in the room with him. It won't be long till Garry dies, now.
When they removed life support, they also took out his feeding tube. He will
starve to death. It should only take a week or two.
This is a fairly common practice for terminal cases in
America. Most notably, Terri Schiavo, who had been in a coma for 10 years was
taken off life support and left to starve to death after a 5-year legal battle
between her parents and her husband, during which her feeding tube had been
removed and reinserted two times before a final court ruling that it should be
removed and not replaced. Terri died on March 31st, 8 days after she
had last been fed.
Her case differed from Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan –
both who were in the same state Terri. They broke ground in the legal area of
Right-To-Die law: the removal of feeding tubes, permitting starvation. Until
their cases presented in the Supreme Court, people had been left in a
vegetative state until they died of
natural causes, forcing their families to pay for their care until they
bankrupted.
Another landmark case, Estelle Browning, had made her wishes
very clear, in writing and long before her coma: she did not want to be kept
alive by artificial means. Having been fed through a tube as a matter of
procedure until her will was found and read, her feeding tube was removed, and
she, too, was permitted to starve to death. In none of these cases was death
accelerated by administering drugs.
In fact, the 'forced to live, no matter what' phenomenon
that appears uniquely American even found its way into movie theaters,
splendidly showcased in the film Million Dollar Baby:
Maggie struggled her whole life to do the one thing that
makes her feel good: boxing. She quickly rose through the ranks, fighting in
matches all over the world. During one fight, her opponent landed an illegal
hit that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She was kept alive by various
machines. Even though she expressed her desire to die, the medical staff went
to great lengths to prevent her death, even keeping her sedated so that she
couldn't bite off her own tongue and bleed out, as she had tried to do.
I have ranted about this topic before: the right to die with
dignity (See Death Rights, posted August 2014). My friends, Caroline and
Earline, dismissed by their doctors, had been sent home to die, even though
they were both of sound enough mind to exercise the option of ending their
life, had that choice been available to them. One point of that previously
posted article was that they did not have that option.
Garry (and Terri Schiavo and the other women) is not awake
to make decisions for himself. Dignified termination of life being illegal in
all but one state - Oregon, the doctors' and family's only option is to force
starvation. Remember: Garry must still feel pain, as he is being fed morphine.
Can you imagine what he will be going through?
Makes me wonder: why does the American government waste time
and tax dollars trying to decide what to label people when there are much
greater decisions to be made, such as the right to die with dignity? I won't
go again into the argument made in my previous article: that prisoners on death
row and animals have the legal right to die with more dignity than ordinary
citizens.
Meanwhile...
President Obama is in Vietnam, brokering trade agreements
and lifting arms embargos. He addressed a crowd of 2300 in the Hanoi Convention
Center:
Yet even as he hailed the progress (Vietnam has made),
Obama also gently pushed Vietnam to improve its record on human rights and free
speech. (Source: The Washington Post)
That would be the president of the United States, urging
Vietnam to improve its human rights record. Where does America stand on human
rights, letting people who have no hope of recovery and no quality of life
starve to death or die in agony (while prisoners and dogs are humanely
'terminated')?
And 'free speech'? Obama just signed a bill into law,
banning words!
Does anyone else see any irony, here?
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