For Thompson, Schiavo case too close too home

I too, unfortunately, have been close to this same type situation. We go day to day thinking that we have tough decisions to make until we are involved in a life or death decision for someone else. I feel for Fred Thompson. I understand his pain and his thought process. He is a man of morals and integrity.

Thank you for an honest report and now, maybe, some of those witch hunters will
be a little more reserved with their poison pens when trying to smear Thompson.

I feel for Thompson very much. He expresses feelings and opinions that can only be realized when it is happening to you. Politics should never enter into these decisions. People should not be mocked and belittled for the decisions they make during tough times like this.

"The American Hospital Assn. has estimated that about 75% of hospital deaths in America these days are somehow negotiated. "

Wow! 75%! That many people are murdered by Nazi loving, life hating, cold blooded genocidal liberals and Democrats?

(Any of those terms sound familiar)

"It should be decided by families. The federal government and the state government, too--except for the court system--ought to stay out of it."

First thing he has said that I agree with. I don't think that answer will go over big with the rightious right though.

excatly right...no government, local or federal has a place in such affairs...any attempt to do so is political...I'm just sayin'

sean

As a Democrat, I can honestly say I respect Thompson on this issue. No one can say they are absolutely right or wrong on this issue; if you've never experienced it.

However, as a politician he needs to be ready for that kind of prying into his personal life.

Glad I will never get into politics.....either way, I respect the man for keeping his family business close to his chest.

This is the best example of how screwed-up the Schiavo case really was with all these blathering self-righteous conservatives going on a crusade & invading a families privacy in the worst way.
Would conservatives have attacked Thompson's family with the same amount of venom about whatever decision they made? Degrade it into nothing more then political theater?

Roman B you have a liberal rant--by your psoting it's obvious you do not like conservatives. Fair enough I don't like liberal Democrats.
I believe in the culture of life given to us by God.I beleive from the time of conception in the womb to the tomb all life is precious.Killing babies in the womb which Planned Parenthood calls health care is a grave sin period.I am pro-life and will not espouse the liberal Democrat sacrament abortion. Obviously, Fred Thompson had a terrible tragedy with his daughters death-- he is pro-life. Jerry White, Springfield, IL

My heart goes out to Fred Thompson and anyone else who goes through having to decide whether or not to keep a loved one on life support.

Jerry White (From Springfield!)

So, where do you stand on the Schiavo case?

"I believe in the culture of life given to us by God.I beleive from the time of conception in the womb to the tomb all life is precious.Killing babies in the womb which Planned Parenthood calls health care is a grave sin period.I am pro-life and will not espouse the liberal Democrat sacrament abortion."
Fair enough, Jerry White. But what has that got to do with this discussion? Are you truly so obsessed by abortion that you're unable to stop thinking about it even when considering the decisions about your loved ones that you yourself may someday be called upon to make? I'd sure hate to be your child.

I wish Fred Thompson - and more importantly, the rest of his family - the best of luck in keeping this intensely personal decision out of the public debate. The key word here is, after all, personal.

Interesting that Fred's going to get a pass for a deliberate untruth (I can't really recall the Schiavo case).

I do feel for him that he had to face this difficult decision himself. I think his experience speaks eloquently for why an end-of-life decision should remain with the family instead of politicians, or theocrats seeking to impose their beliefs on everyone else.

Certainly it's understandable that Mr. Thompson wasn't eager to discuss the issue, but his campaign should have been prepared with an answer. I suspect if one of the Democratic Party candidates did something similar, the Right Wing Noise Machine would be bellowing about the lying.

Jerry:

What in the world does your rant on abortion have to do with this topic??

As a liberal Democrat, I am grateful to see that at least one conservative Republican sees the true reality of the Schiavo case lies with the family - not with the courts, or Congress - especiall Dr. Bill Frist with his television diagnosis of Terry Schiavo. Too bad for Fred that he probably lost some of the far right-wing GOP votes with this stance.

Why make an exception for the court system? The family and their physician should be the ones to make this very difficult decision. Access to the courts by parents at odds with the husband caused all the fuss in the sad case of Terry Schiavo.

Too bad for Fred that he probably lost some of the far right-wing GOP votes with this stance.

Posted by: BobinATL | October 23, 2007 11:09 AM

Good point ATL. Makes you wonder about where the GOP is at these days. I've been in a similar situation as Fred Thompson's. Truely one of the worst things you could ever imagine going through. I feel for him.

So many of you seemed to miss the conservative point in the Schiavo case. This was not a family in agreement, but a husband who had long ago abandoned his wife, shacked up with another woman, had a history of not taking care of her and stood to gain financially if she would just die. Terry Schiavo's parents wanted to care for her and he would rather kill her to get at them. I don't for one minute believe he did any of this for Terry. There are profoundly disabled people today who cannot feed themselves either. Should we remove their feeding tubes because they can't contribute to their own well-being? Sanctity of life people worry about the slippery slope and who gets to decide where your quality of life is no longer worth living. Remember you will be old one day too and maybe by that time the culture of death will have progressed to the point we can just take you somewhere and have you euthanized. You think that's extreme? Forty years ago people were appalled by the idea of killing babies in the womb.

"Obviously, Fred Thompson had a terrible tragedy with his daughters death-- he is pro-life."

With all respect to Thompson's personal family matters, this would be what's called a flip-flop of the highest order.
If you argue pro-life is both against abortion & against taking someone off life-support for someone in a vegetative state, you can't take someone off life-support & be pro-choice.
Or, maybe this is what passes for conservative logic in central Illinois.

"I don't for one minute believe he did any of this for Terry. "

But the point is, your opinion, or the opinion of conservative politicians carry no weight, nor should they, in these decisions re. feeding tubes, abortion, etc.

BTW, who will pay to keep us all alive for 150 years?

So many of you seemed to miss the conservative point in the Schiavo case. This was not a family in agreement, but a husband who had long ago abandoned his wife, shacked up with another woman, had a history of not taking care of her and stood to gain financially if she would just die.
Posted by: Lynn | October 23, 2007 12:02 PM

Even if you wrote were true (it is not), the interference by the holier-than-thou sect within the Congress in an
intensely private matter, was grounded more in political circus-making and grandstanding rather than any conservative principle.
The right-wingers are worried about gay-marriage violating the sanctity of marriage.
Puleeeeze.
The Schiavo affair is the most egregious violation of the sanctity of marriage I can think of.

'Movement' Christian Math;

Terri Schiavo = Elian Gonzalez

Lynn:

"Had a history of not taking care of her"??

Where do you get that information from? Obviously you have not read anything about her husband - he had indeed taken very good care of her. The only people were that group of publicity hounds that were HER family.

How extremely kind we're being to ourselves today.

The MSM and political hitmen had drained his personal records desperately searching for a chink in the knight's armor. Nearly despondent in finding nothing to use against him they were forced to report what they had found including the tragic loss of his daughter.

Yet, not a single one of them made the obvious link to the Schiavo case in their race to impune his reputation which was heralded from every station and self-appointed pundit to question the honorable Senator of honesty, measured response and even-temper.

Now, we watch in utter disgust as clowns scuff their feet in the dirt making up excuses and even continuing to defensively attack him in order to lighten their sordid load of rightful guilt on their shoulders.

Shame on you all!

Well, oh boo hoo hoo for poor old Granpa Fred.

When your party comes after 12 year old kids and their families, and then cries about how unfair it is when oppo research is done color me unimpressed.

You Republics started this race to the bottom. When you have scum like 'Dr' Bill Frist diagnosing someone on the floor of the Senate, I could care less what Granpa Fred's problems are. Bring it on.

Hey Hotdog/Veins;

Thanks for confirming my point but, it wasn't necessary...there are more than enough vivid examples already posted by other mental midgets.

This was not a family in agreement, but a husband who had long ago abandoned his wife, shacked up with another woman, had a history of not taking care of her and stood to gain financially if she would just die.
Posted by: Lynn | October 23, 2007 12:02 PM

How is it your place to judge this husband? He stood by her for years and he also knew her wishes. My spouse knows mine and I've informed my mother (who shares your opinion on the case) that if she fought to keep me alive in such a state that I would be one really angry ghost when I finally got to die a natural death.

Hey Hotdog/Veins;

Thanks for confirming my point but, it wasn't necessary...there are more than enough vivid examples already posted by other mental midgets.

Posted by: Winghunter | October 23, 2007 3:36 PM

Winghunter you sound like a crybaby. Buy a pacifier!

Sen. Thompson's personal decision is not the issue- unless he had his daughter starved to death, which I don't believe was the case.

Cases of euthanasia, like the Schaivo case, should not be confused with pulling the plug or letting a natural disease process take its course. Letting someone die is different from making that person die- and that is the critical difference.

And I do mean critical.