A new, and improved, Schiavo?

[fshrink]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1511&e=2&u=/afp/20050330/wl_afp/vaticanpope_050330174747

[Zenlitened]

1. But the situations are different....

... except when it's convenient for the religionists to argue that they're the same!

:sarcasm:

[Az]

2. The common thread is the tube

Time after time the arguments I saw offered were that they knew of cases where someone recovered after a tube had been put in place. They looked at the symptoms and drew their conclusions from that.

[fshrink]

3. Can you imagine the problem

of a pope indefinitely intubated, unconscious?

[Az]

4. They have systems in place to deal with such an event

The vatican does not shut down when the pope is incapcitated. In this popes case I doubt such drastic measures would be exercised though.

But the question is interesting in conjunction with a pope in a different state of healt. Suppose the assasination attempt had been more damaging. A healthier pope put into a coma for an extended period of time would create quite a crisis.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I can't help thinking of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

because not only does it describe this situation, it also describes the American presidency as well.

Zaphod Beeblebrox's full title was president of the Imperial Galactic Government.

The term Imperial is kept though it is now an anachronism. The hereditary emperor is now nearly dead and has been for many centuries. This is because, in his last dying moments, he was, much to his Imperial irritation, locked in a perpetual stasis field. All his heirs are now of course long dead, and the upshot of all of this is that without any drastic upheaval, political power has simply and effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder and is now seen to be vested in an elected Governmental assembly headed by a president elected by the assembly.

In fact, it vests in no such place. That would be too easy. The president's job, and if someone sufficiently vain and stupid is picked he won't realize this, is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. Zaphod Beeblebrox, the only man in history to have made presidential telecasts from the bath, from Eccentrica Gallumbits' bedroom, from the maximum security wing of the Betelgeuse state prison, or from wherever else he happened to be at the time, was supremely good at this job.

http://www.geocities.com/wkjh_hitchhikers/hhgttg_fit9.txt

[fshrink]

6. Funny!

[Zenlitened]

7. Well... tube it is, until the very end

Apparently, he'll be kept hooked up indefinitely even if in a persistent vegetative state.

Discussion at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1355833&mesg_id=1355833

[onager]

8. And in a statement today, Cardinal Ratzinger said...

"He's not vegetative. He's just pining for the fjords."

[Az]

9. Careful

Next we'll be making comments about how he wouldn't voom if you put etc :rofl:

[fshrink]

10. With all the possible support:

bubble, heart support, breathing support, injection of fluid and nourishment, massages, etc... the guy might just out-live all of us!