CODICIL TO LIVING WILL A great many Americans may have a strange, school-time feeling of having just taken an important test and failed. Many of us developed strong beliefs about the situation of Terri Schiavo which was ended this morning in Atlanta when she died of starvation and dehydration.
In one sense, it is “all over”.
In another, the real problem, at the root of it all, is just beginning to be seen and felt among millions of average citizens who were previously ignorant of such terms and totally unaware of such.
Those who had been in hospitals or had surgical care in recent years might remember having been asked if they had “a Living Will” and possibly wondered if they did. We were often assured that such a statement of intent or a regular will and that additional papers were not needed. Now, we have it mind that it might be best to check and see if “Last Will and Testament” actually does include have such stipulations or that it just alludes to them.
This particular Florida case in which fifteen years of years of inter-family bickering had been woven into to the story including an element which is all too common in all sections of the country wherein a husband or wife is deprived by conjugal privileges by severe illness of partner. This factor needs attention by religious and secular authorities knowledgable in such matters that they may, in time, come forth with suggestion, clarification's, and guidance which are urgently needed to bring marriage manuals up to date with stern reality in which marriage relationships are severely warped.
It is of special concern where children are involved. To continue to follow the present method of allowing biological necessity to determine what the future path will be is totally wrong, unacceptable, unwise – even dangerous to us as individuals and to the nation at large.
A.L.M. March 1, 2005 [c325wds]
