1st April 2005, 1:43 AM
If the brain is dead, the entire human is dead. Keeping the body fed to "preserve life" is akin to pumping someone's heart, outside of their body, because pumping is something living people do. Everything that is us is in the brain. So, if it's dead, who cares what happens to the rest of the body? I would say it can only be said to be starving in the same way that when someone dies any other way and the brain is dead the rest of the body is being starved of oxygen. It's pretty much the same thing. And, if these doctors were renowned professionals who knew what they were doing and didn't entertain flights of fantasy medicine, then I would submit their opinion on whether or not brain death has occured matters a lot more than any mere politician's.
That said, I do not know the details of this case. I don't pretend to. I don't delude myself into thinking the news had any idea of real details either (they basically just argued with each other about hearsay and conjecture, with very few concrete facts). Also, this case is not unique at all. It made the news for no good reason, because this happens all the time.
A human tragedy? Perhaps so, I won't deny that. I don't know enough to offer any more than that. However, the bigger tragedy is the failing of the news media to conduct themselves with any sort of ethics or accuracy. I say "bigger" in the sense that it has more to do with a lot more people than this mind you. The major cable news channels really are bottoming out. People for the most part don't even know what real news IS any more I think... I know I don't. I know there's something missing and this isn't what I want, but I really am not familiar with the face of the old school GOOD journalism. The kind mumsy used to talk about... All I can say is, ratings are all well and good, but I have to start demanding they STOP trying to entertain us!
You ever get the feeling people who watch "human interest" stories like this have a sense of watching a TV show to "feel" sadness in the same sense they do when watching a movie, instead of truly actually understanding what's going on?
That said, I do not know the details of this case. I don't pretend to. I don't delude myself into thinking the news had any idea of real details either (they basically just argued with each other about hearsay and conjecture, with very few concrete facts). Also, this case is not unique at all. It made the news for no good reason, because this happens all the time.
A human tragedy? Perhaps so, I won't deny that. I don't know enough to offer any more than that. However, the bigger tragedy is the failing of the news media to conduct themselves with any sort of ethics or accuracy. I say "bigger" in the sense that it has more to do with a lot more people than this mind you. The major cable news channels really are bottoming out. People for the most part don't even know what real news IS any more I think... I know I don't. I know there's something missing and this isn't what I want, but I really am not familiar with the face of the old school GOOD journalism. The kind mumsy used to talk about... All I can say is, ratings are all well and good, but I have to start demanding they STOP trying to entertain us!
You ever get the feeling people who watch "human interest" stories like this have a sense of watching a TV show to "feel" sadness in the same sense they do when watching a movie, instead of truly actually understanding what's going on?
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)