HIPPA Violation?
I write today in concern of a matter that really galls my ass. (For lack of a better way to put it). It seems as though George Orwell's predictions in 1984 are slowly coming true. The government has made one more push into the private lives of American citizens - and as usual it is on the tailcoats of religion. Thirteen years ago a woman named Terry Schiavo had an eating disorder. This such eating disorder gave her a chemical imbalance in the brain and she has consequently become a living vegetable. For the last two years, her husband has been trying to let her die with dignity - and what was once just a fight with his in-laws has now become a fight with Big Brother himself. Good ole' "W" rushed home from vacation to push a law through the Senate and House that allows a federal court to hear this case. Do the American citizens realize the implications of such a law??? Of course not - it's not like things of this magnitude haven't happened before. Two words for ya - PATRIOT ACT. So at 1:32 this morning (which is when I think most old people are asleep - but apparently not the Republican dinosaurs), the House approved the bill that was approved in the Senate yesterday. If Terri Schiavo wants to die, she better get to it - she's only got until 3:00 before some federal judge rams another tube into her and forces her to live as a vegetable for another ten years. How incredibly sad. In the midst of all of this, I can't help wondering - where is this woman's right to privacy??? Every person that is even remotely involved in the health care system knows what HIPPA is. In the pharmacy, I can't even tell a someone if the medication their spouse is taking has refills left on it - so how can this possibly be legal? Her plight has been slapped across the television and print so much that I feel like I know this woman personally. This can't be right! And one more thing - isn't this whole "plight" by right-to-life people pure undermining of the "sanctity of marriage" (a quote used so often by the Republicans). We can't let two people who want to be married, but just happen to share the same anatomical structures get married, but now we can tell a husband that he cannot make decisions for his incompetent wife. How insane is that? Bush is only 3 months into his second term - it's going to be a long four years...
posted by ahsirt at 1:00 PM
3 Comments:
Even though the woman deserves to die if she wants, a husband should never have the right to pull the plug on his wife. How do we know it is not because of his girlfriend? She should have made an advanced directive!
So it is your position that parents always maintain the right to determine what is best for their child - even when that child is grown and married? If it was because he wanted to marry the girlfriend, why not just file for divorce? Why go through all these hoops to, as you insinuate, kill his wife? It's pointless. I think it's sad that as a society we condemn this man because he has a girlfriend. His wife is in a persistent vegetative state that is irreversible. She has been that way for 13 years. He has been battling for Terry Schiavo's wishes for no life-sustaning measures for a long time. The case only made the news two years ago. Who knows how long this battle ensued before it broke into the media? The girlfriend may or may not be a recent addition to his life. My point is that we shouldn't even be talking about this. This is a private matter between Terry Schiavo's husband, her parents, and her doctors. Her privacy has been violated and her case has been made a three ring circus. A mockery is being made of all three branches of our government - judicial, legislative, and executive. The mere point of all of this is that the federal government has NO business intervening in personal lives. As far as the advanced directive, the woman is young. I'm sure she never dreamed she would be in this state. As a direct result of this, I am, at the age of 23, establishing a living will. It's a scary thought that President Bush could be making personal decisions about my life. I'll be damned if I'm going to let that happen.
I'm getting my "advanced directive" right now! Only 3 ez payments of 3.99 for the piece of mind...knowing that i am keeping republicans out of my private life.
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