Friday, March 25, 2005
DEATH, DEATH AND MORE DEATH
brendalove@gmail.com
Poor Lil' Bud, possibly the Internet's most famous hamster, was laid to rest in Hamsterdam in an empty box of blank checks and a soft bedding of toilet paper. I was obnoxiously sad about the passing of this hamster. Sparkle reflected quietly for a moment upon hearing the news of his death, then announced that she would go get a new hamster. "Let me get over this one first!" I sobbed at her. Sometimes it just seems like the laws of the natural balance of universe do not apply in this particular household.
Greg over at Hasty Ruminations http://hastyruminations.blogspot.com/ wrote a Lil' Bud obituary and included a picture of a hamster dancing with joy. So now I imagine Lil' Bud dancing in the fields of Hamsterdam, where all of the food is sunflower seeds instead of those pesky (but nutritious!) pellets and that he is thorougly enjoying his afterlife reward.
On to more death:
Remember how Scott Peterson killed his wife dead, dead, dead? He stood trial and was sentenced to death. Now, fast forward 35 years or so to when Scott will actually pay the price. How will Scott Peterson leave the earth? A nice swift injection....off into la-la land he goes.
Now, the Supreme Court has sensibly decided that poor Terri Schiavo has withered away in a hospital bed long enough and is going to allow her to die with some dignity. Does Terri Schiavo get a nice swift injection? Nope. She gets to lay there on that damned bed and die by slow painful degrees.
What else can you say to that? Granted, doctors say that Terri probably has no idea what's going on and doesn't realize she is dying....but still....how do they KNOW? Maybe its not slow and painful for her....but dammit, its slow and painful for all the rest of us....its atrocious and something has to be done.
Anyone who doesn't believe in the right to die has never stood at a loved one's bedside and watched it happening. My mother died of kidney failure amongst all the other myriad diseases that crop up with that particular disease. She was already gone as far as rationality.....she stopped making any sense about a week before she died. She bloated up pitifully from fluid retention....while the hospital personnel insisted on continuing to take her blood pressure every thirty minutes until her arm exploded. Yep, a big ol' rip right in the arm....no bleeding...only fluid came out. Her body and face began to turn black. She began to smell. She was decaying right there in front of our eyes but she wouldn't die. Everytime the hospital personnel moved her position she would scream. And nobody cared....all those hospital people cared about was keeping on their schedule. You don't want to know what its like to stand by your loved one's side and pray for them to die and all the guilt that comes with that. She finally drew one last tortured breath and then she just couldn't go any further.
*cries*
Later I talked to someone who knows a lot of things and he said that I shouldn't have felt so helpless about it....death is a path we all walk eventually and we all walk it alone. Its much harder for those left behind to watch than it is for the person making the journey. Yeah...but.....if you know for sure someone is going to die....and they're already mostly there anyway....why do we still make people go through every last step? With all the drugs and stuff we have...why can't we send them peacefully on their journey? Is it really a wrong thing to do?
Well, this has stepped away from Terri Schiavo and more into the personal....but waiting for Terri to die is really preying on my nerves this week. Why do our serial killers get to leave this earth more peacefully than our hopelessly sick?
Posted by brendalove@gmail.com @ 4:31 PM
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