Medical Power of Attorney?

I never in my life want to designate ANYONE as a medical guardian over me. Even if my mind slips in my old age. I want society and the law to presume I want to eat and drink.

I once had a husband who turned evil, and even if I ever married again I would never want to sign that kind of power over to anyone. Because I just don't trust. People are flawed. The BEST of people are flawed. They can turn on a dime with the right motive, just like Michael Schiavo did (he had a lot of dimes, didn't he). Terri once trusted him, but he found a motive to betray that trust. And all the judges all the way up to the Supreme Court betrayed their own humanity by making her die the way they did. Their motive was their own idolatry for a merciless procedure-bound view of "Law". So, no, really the decision of whether you eat or drink should never be left up to any human being, even a judge. The law (perhaps the constitution itself) should be corrected to specifically spell out a presumption that every human being deserves to eat and drink. In any form.

When I go, I want to die of legitimate natural causes. Lack of food and hydration should NEVER be regarded as a "natural cause" of death. There's time enough to not eat after I'm dead.

That was the first mistake in Florida, don'tcha know, the legislature getting bamboozled by the idea that tube feeding was somehow fundamentally different from feeding by mouth. George Felos is the one who pushed for the legislation in Florida in the late '90's to regard tube feeding as "artificial" and therefore, rejectable/removable. The guy has a taste for blood (just read his book excerpts), and he knew this was his obstacle. When he and Michael Schiavo found each other, it was a match made in heaven, er um, hell. A perfect storm.

Argentina's Shining Light

In a case nearly identical to Terri Schiavo's, an Argentinian court has ruled to presume that everyone wants to be, and ought to be, fed. Story here.

Some commenters on that page thought such a post would only insult American judges, since Argentinian law carries no authority here.

But hey, this isn't about Argentina courts having any sway over American courts. This is about exposing which countries have good human rights records, and which countries have poor human rights records. I live in the U.S., where obviously we have begun publicly starving our disabled citizens to death. I will never again feel the same about my country, where individual's human rights are so easily set asside. I've written to European friends how ashamed I am of my country now.

Something has disasterously broken down here, and we have to fix it. If Argentina's presumption that everyone wants to be and should be fed can be a shining light for us, then so be it.

Beth Gaddy Schiavo

So, the news now is that Mae Magouirk has been moved to a cardiac specialist hospital in Alabama, UAB, who were shocked to find it took them two days to adequately rehydrate her after her maltreatment at the hands of that death-camp-hospice, before they could tend to the rest of her medical needs. However, her grandaughter, who only had very limited guardianship in Georgia is trying to assert herself in Alabama, by denying any of Mae's Alabama relatives from visiting her --- even her own sister who is being treated in the very same hospital for the very same cardiac problem (leaky aorta).

Story here.

Bizarro.

I suggest this to her Alabama kin:

So hey, call Mae on the phone and have her wheel down to the 7th floor to sister Lonnie's room and visit =her= instead. Oh, unless darling grandaughter ripped out the room phone... and is putting police at her door. So Nephew Mullinex, have a gift cell phone delivered to your Aunt Mae. Better include some bottled water just in case.

Unless they are STILL drugging her into unconsciousness, there is no reason for her to be totally incommunicado.

Oh, and since darling grandaughter has even less legal standing in Alabama than she had in Georgia (just when DOES that temporary and limited guardianship expire?), I must ASSUME you have your own lawyers, and lawyers for Mae, making appropriate legal filings in Alabama. Hmmmmm?

I do believe that darling grandaughter is SOOOOO afraid that Aunt Mae will actually sign a paper actually designating a medical guardian BY NAME, that she is trying to keep anyone out who might be carrying paperwork.

God forbid she live long enough to change her Will too, now.