Further Proving I'm An A$$hole... (as if you needed more proof)
To me, there is something fundamentally hypocritical about the Religious Right and their views on euthanasia and abortion. Let's break it down for a second, shall we? Let's say a woman in, oh I don't know, Florida is severely brain-damaged and unable to do very rudimentary tasks like feeding herself. If the Religious Right truly believe in a soul and an afterlife, I find it very difficult to understand why they wouldn't want her to be free of her "broken carnal shell" so that her soul can ascend to the afterlife. I can't say that I understand a lot of the Religious Right's view on the Shiavo case in particular, but her parents are Catholic (and they claim Terri was a practicing Catholic) so I think I know a little bit about what they are thinking. Yes, I know that the Catholic Church is opposed to euthanasia in all forms... but I don't necessarily get why. I mean, from their perspective, isn't Terri Schiavo's soul trapped in her body? With little to no way of communicating with the outside world? Isn't that a worse fate than death? For, in death, we are reunited with our Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven (from a Catholic POV). Isn't that what we WANT to happen? You mean to sit there and tell me that you would prefer all life to continue... even if it means horrific suffering just because, what? you believe that only God can give and take life? I can actually understand that viewpoint... but I feel, like most Catholic viewpoints, it's antiquated. Doctors make life and death decisions every day... who gets organs and who doesn't; how long should we continue to fight to save someone's life before it's "too late"; do I perform an expensive but potentially life-saving procedure if the patient can't afford it; etc. The Catholic Church, on this and other issues, has been left in the last millennium; choosing not to keep up with things like medical ethics issues and the Women's liberation movement.
I'm getting off my point. My point is that I don't understand how they can justify allowing a person to suffer in the physical realm when it seems more humane to let them die and free their soul. The Church has to concede that medicine has advanced to the point where doctors ARE in fact making life-and-death decisions, playing God as it were, and the Church needs to update its viewpoint. Maybe the Church will still argue that it's wrong to euthanize someone... and that would be fine with me, but it seems like they're trying to make arguments that are no longer relevant to intellectual discourse.
On a similar note, I saw something on the news about this IMAX Volcano movie that a few theatres in the South are refusing to play. Have you seen this debate? The IMAX movie makes a few claims about evolution as if they were factual and the Religious Right has a HUGE problem with this. The guy MSNBC (was I watching MSNBC?) got to speak for the Religious Right was very good and intelligent and I wish I could remember his name, but I can't. Regardless, this guy said that the Right has a big problem with evolution being taught as fact because of all the loop-holes and inconsistencies and anomalies in evolution. It was very eloquently put... and I found myself agreeing with his point... but not the end result. To clarify, the Religious Right says "Stop teaching evolution as if it was fact" and I say "Okay, done. But what do we do with all the facts we've collected scientifically? What do we do with all that evidence?" and it's as if the Right is saying "It's all irrelevant." I'm sorry, but fossil records and carbon dating and all the science we have at our disposal is not irrelevant. What are we supposed to do? not teach anything until there is one right, true, and perfect explanation for EVERYTHING? No! That does us as human beings no good what-so-ever. Lest we forget, some of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time were discovered by men (and women) who sat down and said to themselves "I really want to know how God created this universe so I can have a better understanding of God". I mean... all the big names: Aristotle, Newton, Steeno*; they were all doing that VERY thing and somewhat stumbled across some kind of scientific breakthrough. To completely ignore science is pure idiocy and I, for one, will not have my children fall behind the rest of the WORLD because people in this country don't think we should teach evolution because it doesn't explain everything. Don't get me wrong... Bravo to the Right for standing up and saying "You're teaching this as fact, and it's got a lot of problems"... that will only strengthen evolution (or eventually completely debunk it) in the long run. But this, at the very least, is progress... something that I accuse the Catholic Church of not doing in a very long time.

* Not really. He just kind of sat around.

PS Mr. Erik Love makes an excellent point about a Bill of Attainders on his blog here.