What value, human life?

This is a letter to the editor in the National Post, Monday March 28/05
Terri Schiavo, as tragic as her last hours are, illustrates the incredible strength of political will when rallied around a compelling cause. In her case, legislators attempted to make the withdrawal of life-support unlawful, speaking passionately to the value of human life.
Contract this with the chronic withholding of lifesaving drugs and treatment that the world's poor endure every single day. In their case, under-funding is endemic and international guidelines on support - such as spending 0.7% GDP on development aid - are perpetually ignorned. And while political will to combat poverty soared a few short months ago during the tsunami crisis in Southeast Asia, the sober second-thought of Western politicians has decreed that the lives of the poorest still aren't worth saving normally.

A question I have in this case is that it has been said over and over that Terri Schiavo is in a permanent vegetative state and feels no pain. Why then, tell me please, have the medical caregivers begun a morphine drip for pain? If she feels no pain, as they have been saying, why give her morphine?

Just things I pondered as I read the paper waiting for my two ferry ride home today.