It would be interesting socially if the vegetable in question had fried her brain with her choice of unlicensed pharmaceuticals, instead of her choice of self-starvation (leading to cardiac failure, leading to joining the vegetable kingdom). Would Jeb be trying to adopt a coke-stroke negro? It would also be interesting if those who want to keep her metabolizing had to pay for it, or do it themselves, instead of requiring the taxpayers to absorb the cost. Which is the real libertarian question, once you realize no one is coercing anyone, since the vegetable is less sentient than the cows we eat or chimps we experiment upon. Instead, the xians show their hand, that it is not the soul (consciousness) they care about, and the quality of its experience, just heartbeats. Someone should show them a chick's heart beating in a petri dish. But of course they are not deterred by reality. Perhaps they are afraid that their own emptiness will be exposed if life be judged by more than the ability to metabolize. It would be very cool karma if the Pope were to be vegetative but indefinately prolongable (thanks of course to the fruits of the scientific method which is the antiPope). One imagines this will eventually happen. Or are there rules to replace a useless Pope? Does Alexander Haig get to be interim Pope? In lieu of less messy and hard to arrange (thanks to fascism) processes (eg, an overdose), those piloting their own ships end up sucking the barrel of a .45, or whatever caliber is convenient. Rarely do we try to improve the world in the process, by taking deserving others with us, probably out of overwhelming self-obsession at such times. (Though the fellow who drove a tanker into the Capitol in Sacramento comes to mind.) At least we don't try to stop trains with our bodies (we would sit in our SUVs on the tracks anyway), and rarely jump off overpasses into traffic, which inconveniences many, compared to the ballistic route. ----- "Get your laws off my body"