RIP

Democrappy hits the nail squarely on the head: Terri's Dead, and You're Next.

All the bluster over Terri Schiavo's fate masked the fundamental fact that it was none of the nation's damned business. But on this particular day I'm willing to join the ideologues in making her a national symbol. For I can think of nothing that better symbolizes the human consequences of the right's "culture of life" than the slow death of an innocent woman.

The Right's posturing and pandering on this issue during the last couple weeks is the height of hypocrisy.

In the two weeks it took her body to shut down from lack of food and water, a half-million children starved to death around the world, from the untreated but eminently curable disease of poverty; and 81,000 children died of diarrhea, caused in large measure by tainted water.

Dependent on others for food, Terri Schiavo joined 26 million Americans who depend on emergency food donations for survival, and over 36 million Americans who are hungry or on the edge of hunger (the ten worst states in this regard are all red states). Deprived of liquid, she became one of 1.1 billion people who lack access to potable water. As her weight dropped, she shared the predicament of 183 million unhealthily underweight children around the globe. She was fed and cared for thanks to a $1.6 million medical malpractice award of a sort that will become illegal if the Republicans have their way, and that surpasses the combined annual income of 5,500 of the world's poorest people, who live on less than a dollar a day.

You should really read the full post - it's not much longer than this - but with more facts and links to sources.