Consider this my living will, out there for everyone to read: If I am ever in a persistant vegetative state, like Terry Schiavo, please pull my feeding tube. This case in Florida right now distresses me for many reasons. First, my position on “right to die” is this: If I am not going to have any quality of life whatsoever (i.e. ability to communicate, take care of myself, etc.) then I do NOT want to live. I do NOT want to be kept alive just to satisfy someone’s moral beliefs. I think that is absolutely inhuman. Secondly, and this pisses me off even more, is the debate over who has the right to decide the patient’s fate…the spouse or the parents? Dwight was telling me that he overheard people he works with arguing that it should be the parents’ and not the husband’s decision, because “the parents love their child more than the spouse ever could,” “married people drift apart over time” and Terry Schiavo “was probably more honest with her parents anyway.” This makes me so angry and so sad. It makes me angry, because the people who are arguing that the parents love their child more than the child’s spouse are probably the same people who would also argue against gay marriage because it “destroys the institution of marriage.” How much value are they themselves placing on this institution when they make comments like that? It makes me sad, too, to think that people actually think this. My marriage is the most important thing in the the world to me, and no offense to my parents, Dwight is the only person in the world I would want to make that decision. He knows me better than my parents do, and after 8 years together, 5 of which we’ve been married, I don’t feel that there’s been any “drifting apart.” On the contrary, we are closer now than we ever have been. I feel the “unconditonal love” from him more so than my parents sometimes. It’s nice to know that someone loves and appreciates you for exactly who you are, and not always wish you were different in this way or that. I guess I’m sad that so many other people apparently don’t get to experience this kind of marriage. And this brings me back to my feelings on the institution of marriage with respect to gays and lesbians: Heterosexual people are doing more to undermine the institution of marriage themselves than “allowing” homosexuals to marry ever could. Maybe this is why so many people seem so threatened by gay marriage, and it’s probably easier anyway to have a scapegoat. It all comes down to one fundamental issue…people should take a good, long hard in the mirror before they attempt to judge others.