And The Winner Is...

Deborah Bedolla, president of Choose Life at Yale, in the category of most batshit-insane commentary yet put into print on the Passion of the Schiavo. This needs to be read in full to be appreciated---I'm fairly certain I could write separate response columns on every individual paragraph (including the Mother Teresa stuff: somebody forgot to read The Missionary Position). But I have reason to post one excerpt:

The Dutch have gone down this road. They started by euthanizing people with terminal illness who requested death. Then they started euthanizing people who just requested death, with or without a terminal illness. Then they started euthanizing people who never requested death, such as those with Alzheimer's. Now they are euthanizing children under 12, oftentimes without even consulting their parents. Many people, out of fear, now wear bracelets informing doctors not to kill them. Sounds too horrific to be true? Wait 10 years.

Does this sound fishy to anyone else? It sounds to me like precisely the sort of nonsense religious right organizations will now and again fabricate. Or perhaps it's a wild distortion. Coercive euthanasia for Alzheimer's patients? Children under 12? I'll admit it if I'm wrong, but I can't conceive of these claims being true. [Note to recidivist attendees of the Wake: any help tracking down the facts of the matter on these claims would be much appreciated--ed.]

Then there's the further ambiguity: "Sounds too horrific to be true? Wait 10 years." This could mean one of two things (by my count). It might mean that the author fears that the widespread euthanasia currently gripping Holland will be imported to America within 10 years if (sniff) we permit the courts to murder Terri Schiavo. Or it might mean that none of the preceding allegations of the Dutch eros for thanatos were actually true, but rather were a pro-lifer's hallucinatory envisaging of what might happen if (sniff) people suffering in hopeless and terminal conditions are treated with mercy.