via Ballon-Juice

Sullivan: Here's a question I can't get out of my head. What if Terri Schiavo had had a living will saying she wouldn't want a feeding tube to keep her alive for decades with no reasonable hope for recovery? Legally, of course, there'd be no issue. She'd get her chance to die in peace. But morally? The arguments of the proponents for keeping the feeding tube in indefinitely suggest that removing the tube is simply murder. If that is the case, then how can removing the tube ever be justified - even if she consented in advance? Murder is murder, right? Isn't a "living will" essentially a mandate for future assisted suicide? It seems to me that the logic of the absolutist pro-life advocates means that this should be forbidden too. They should logically support a law which forbids the murder of anyone, regardless of living wills. In a society that legally mandates the "culture of life," the individual's choice for death is irrelevant, no? Or am I missing something here?

You aren't missing anything. If some have their way, living wills will be invalidated:

Theology doesn't matter. Laws don't matter. Your wishes don't matter. Moral obligations are what matters to some of these folks. And before I get flamed, note the terminology Land used- he 'accepts' peoples wishes. If given the opportunity to mandate what he wants, he will. And you are a fool for thinking otherwise.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A 66-year-old woman with terminal cancer has become the first person to die under Washington state's new assisted suicide law, an advocacy group said Friday. Linda Fleming, of Sequim, died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the "Death with Dignity" law that took effect in March, said Compassion & Choices of Washington.

The organization said Fleming was diagnosed last month with advanced pancreatic cancer. She would have had to have been diagnosed by two doctors as terminal in order to qualify for assisted suicide.

The group said Fleming died at home with her family, her dog and her physician at her bedside.

"The pain became unbearable, and it was only going to get worse," Fleming said in a statement released by the organization. Read on...

A good friend of mine died recently from pancreatic cancer and I know how devastatingly painful it was for her. I can't even begin to imagine her suffering. Regardless of what side of the debate you're on, the subject always seems to stir a lot of emotions, most recently brought to the surface during the political and media circus surrounding Terri Schiavo's life and death.

"The Supreme Court upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die...read on"

Of course Roberts joined Scalia and Thomas in his vote.