The Pope and Terry Schiavo

So now the Pope is going to die, too. While the Catholic faithful mourn their spiritual leader, I am left to wonder why he isn't on dialysis and why he isn't on a respirator. Could it be because he actually has a living will? His kidneys are failing...couldn't dialysis help that? His breathing is shallow and labored...couldn't a respirator help that? How dignified that he is being allowed to die a natural death. How undignified it was for poor, Terry Schiavo. All those years, all that agony and for what? What parent wants to say good- bye to her child? I couldn't even bear putting my daughter or son on a train or a plane if it meant they were leaving me. How pitiful is that? But I'll tell you one damned thing for sure, I would never call that evil bastard Randall Terry for help and I'd never let someone I loved linger in a vegetative state once I had been complete assured that there was nothing that could be done that would ever bring that person back, and I don't mean 100% back...but just back in some way recognizable to me.

And...one more thought. If heaven is supposed to be so great and if Ms. Schiavo's parents (and Randall Terry who they called to help their cause) are such believers, why didn't they embrace the idea of their daughter meeting her maker? Surely they believed that in heaven Terry would be whole again and free of the misery that has been her life since she suffered irreversible brain damage in 1990. I find this issue very curious, very curious indeed.