Reminds me of the Kursk -

Of course this Terri Schiavo thing really bothers me. It brings back bad memories of the Kursk disaster, which threw me into a depression for a few weeks. In case you don't remember the Kursk, it was a Russian submarine that ran aground underwater, far from land. The sailors sent a distress signal to their compatriots in the Russian Navy. It took almost a full day for this message to be relayed to President Putin. Unfortunately for the sailors, to save their lives, rescuers from other countries would have to be called. But it seems that the Kursk was on a mission that was classified, especially from the U.S. and France, who were the most likely rescuers. So the Russian government stalled, trying to decide whether to accept foreign help. Putin did not treat the situation urgently because he believed the men had little chance of being rescued. He did not even return from the vacation he was enjoying in the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, 118 sailors were trapped at the bottom of the sea. Tapping noises emitting from the sub were thought to be morse code messages from the men. Some of them were still alive, but facing declining supplies of food, water and most essentially, oxygen. Once the rescue attempts were begun, they were foiled by bad weather. When the sub's escape hatch was opened, one week after the Russians announced the disaster, every soldier was dead. "One of the sailors, Dmitry Kolesnikov, did write in notes salvaged later that 23 sailors had survived the blasts and made their way to the back compartment of the submarine after checking that the reactor had shut down. But Kolesnikov wrote his last message at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, according to Flynn, who concurs with the official report that an oxygen-producing device must have fallen into the oily water and started a fire, poisoning the air for those still alive."

Terri Schiavo is at the bottom of the sea. I do not know how many of her faculties will recover if we can save her, but I imagine her, trapped in an isolated part of her mind, waiting for rescue, trying to send messages to us that she is still inside. But rather than giving her medical attention for her now near-death starvation, we are filing briefs, and making speeches, and posturing. If she dies, and I believe that she will, she will be killed by the very same thing that killed the men of the Kursk: stubborn, stubborn pride.