Tragic.

The Terri Schiavo case is tragic. It's tragic because a young woman suffered with an eating disorder so severe that it caused her to have a heart attack. It's tragic because that heart attack deprived her brain of oxygen, rendering her comatose. It's tragic because her parents, siblings, and husband fought so long and so hard for what they thought was her wish. It's tragic because it tore her family apart and prevented her parents and siblings from being at her side at the moment of her death.

It's tragic for all the private details made public; for the photos published of Mrs. Schiavo before her accident: such a vivacious and energetic person. It's tragic for the videos of her condition in the hospice in Florida, hands clenched, lips curled, her face a mask. It's tragic that millions of people in the United States and the World have watched news tickers and updates about her deteriorating condition as she moved closer to death. It's tragic that Michael Schiavo has undergone such close scrutiny and questioning as a result of his two children by another woman whom he met after Mrs. Schiavo had been in a persistent vegitative state for years. It's tragic that his "moral" and "decent" image had to die with Terri.

It's tragic that our elected officials consider it their business to alter state laws and push legislation through congress that seeks to undermine the legal powers of her husband as primary caregiver and guardian. It's tragic that our lawmakers chastise our federal judiciary as "out-of-control" because the system of checks and balances that has served our nation for 230 years got in the way of their personal beliefs. It's tragic that we, as Americans, watched and read and clicked on stories of this dying woman and her anguished family and passed judgements about how terrible one person or the other was while returning home to our loved ones, unthoughtful about the fragility of the human body.

It's tragic that we don't consider the plight of a same-sex couple with the same heart-wrenching health crisis in a state that does not provide legal protections to partners. It's tragic that we don't consider the circumstances that occur in every state of the union when those who DO have legal living wills or health care proxies are denied tube feeding at their own request and die the same slow death by dehydration that Mrs. Schiavo did.

It's tragic because death is tragic. It's tragic because life is tragic. It's tragic because people care for one another. It's tragic because people don't.

It's tragic because it can't be prevented from happening again unless you do something... Health Care Proxy / Living Wills in Massachusetts.