Ethics of writing about a "Girlfriend in a Coma"

Congratulations to British science fiction writer
Eric Brown, author of the short story “Myths of the Martian Future” (2002) and the forthcoming novella “Gilbert and Edgar on Mars” (2009), for summoning the courage to join the newly christened but soon-to-be-renamed Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics project. The project is “a core platform, a hub of authors who have banded together with the aim of celebrating all that is positive in genre fiction. We aim to leave cynicism and negativity at the door, and concentrate on what makes us smile, what entertains us, and what brings light and joy to our SF, fantasy and horror universe.”

Over the moors, but unrelated to Mars, bottoms up to British lyricist and singer Morrissey, former frontman of the 1980s melancholy band The Smiths, whose writings were recently compared to other great figures of British literature, such as Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde. Focusing on subjects such as “child murder, working-class poverty, suicide, football hooliganism, mental illness, police corruption, disability, animal cruelty, violence, paedophilia, racism, death, [and] the loss of faith,” Morrissey penned the lines to scores of great songs. Here's one of his morbid gems, “Girlfriend in a Coma” (1987):

Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's really serious

There were times when I could
Have "murdered" her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)

No, I don't want to see her

Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do ...

Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye

There were times when I could
Have "strangled" her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)
Would you please
Let me see her!

Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do ...
Let me whisper my last goodbyes

I know - It's serious

The song provided Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland’s post-apocalyptic SF/F novel Girlfriend in a Coma (1998) with its title. According to The Guardian, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, Coupland's novel is one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read.