'Culture of Death' stalks Terri Schiavo
'Culture of death' stalks Terri Schiavo
(Tue, Mar/22/2005)
In a video, Terri Schiavo appears pale, puffy and fragile.
Her mother, Mary Schindler, faces Terri, back to the camera from a three-quarter shot.
Mrs. Schindler lifts her left hand to caress Terri's face.
Terri smiles.
But this can't be, for we have been told that Terri Schiavo is hopelessly brain damaged and in a "persistent vegetative state" or, as one doctor who recommended starving her to death put it, in "wakeful oblivion."
Another video. It shows Terri grimacing and turning away when a doctor places a cotton swab in her mouth.
Who knew that someone in a persistent vegetative state could feel discomfort enough to react as anyone might when a swab is shoved in your face?
Terri seems wakeful, but not oblivious. Another video. Terri's eyes follow a Mylar balloon as it is moved over her, back and forth.
Huh. A profoundly brain-damaged woman who appears to have the ability to concentrate.
Oh, it's probably just a reflex.
More video. Terri laughs. Terri moans. Terri tries to speak. (Yesterday the Internet was ablaze with a 2004 audiotape of Terri attempting to speak to her father.)
Laughter? Moaning? Speech? From someone whose brain forever spins somewhere near Jupiter?
Of course, who am I to question the wise men of medicine who actually examined Terri? These doctors gave their opinions to a Florida state judge, who used them to rule that "persistently vegetative" Terri should die by starvation.
Among the doctors the judge relied on is Ronald Cranford, a neurologist who has taught at the University of Minnesota's Center for Biomedical Ethics.
I'm sure it's just a slip among us in the media, but it hasn't been widely reported that Cranford has long advocated starving the brain damaged, especially those suffering from Alzheimer's. He even wrote an op-ed piece in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about it.
"In Europe," he wrote, "feeding tubes are rarely seen in nursing homes.
Once a patient is so severely brain damaged that only artificial nutrition can sustain life, many doctors and families ask, 'What's the point?' "
The point, doctor, is that brain-damaged people can improve, and the videotapes of Terri Schiavo are evidence.
I had a cousin who suffered an aneurysm and lay comatose for weeks. Several doctors examined him and said there was nothing more to do.
Compassion dictated that life support be turned off. But one doctor had an unscientific hunch that my cousin would recover. Several weeks later, my cousin was talking.
Today, you'd never know that he had nearly been a victim of medically induced "compassion."
What stalked my cousin, and what's stalking Terri Schiavo, is what Pope John Paul II calls the "culture of death."
That is putting to death someone who is medically helpless in the name of compassion or for the sake of our own convenience.
It's becoming normalized.
Just last Sunday, The New York Times, quoting "experts," reported that inducing death by withholding food and fluids "can lead to a gentle death" - as if none of us have seen the horrific images of Dachau and Bergen-Belsen.
If Terri Schiavo dies, she won't be the first victim the culture of death has claimed. She'll merely be the most famous among millions who've been silently terminated because it was decided that their life was more trouble than it was worth.
Mullane's opinion column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Article's URL:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...05-466366.html
'Culture of Death' stalks Terri Schiavo
Michael Shiavo has been coopted by and joined wholly with the culture of death. He should have long ago been removed as Terri's guardian and someone less conflicted should have replaced him...like her parents. Then Michael should be investigated thoroughly for crimes against Terri...all the way back to her original condition because I believe this is the key to the whole matter. That this is not occurring speaks to complicity and corruption far beyond Michael's.
As to the Judges...this latest Federal Judge decision which is making the desperate appeal to the 11th Circuit by Terri's parents necessary, is just another in a long line of aborations and corruption assiociated with Terri Shiavo. Where is it written down and notoriized...that her wishes are to die of starvation or thirst if in that position...which would violate her religious beliefs which, by all accounts, she was adamant about? It's not.
As to constitutionality of the latest decision, I say it's pure, unadulterated Bravo Sierra. This Judge could easily have ruled constitutionally that she had a right to life, which trumps all of the other legaleze and mumbo-jumbo being spouted by those who support having her killed.
Common sense has fled so many of our people, even our judges. When there is the least shred of evidence, doubt or disagreement in such a situation as this, particularly amongst direct family members who are willing to lovingly care for her...you ERR ON THE SIDE OF LIFE!
Anything short of this is an abject violation of the most fundamental principles upon which this Republic was founded.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the right to life...
If we as a people cast that aside, if we allow it to be cast aside, then we tread a path that will lead to our ruin, our enslavement and our destruction as a soveriegn Republic and a nation founded upon liberty and the rule of law, that law being undergirded by fundamental moral principle.
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."- John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798"
Sadly, in this ruling and episode, as with many others of our day (ie. abortion) we are seeing exctly why Adams said this and are living out the negative of John Adams statement...right before our eyes. God bless those who are standing for life, against the culture of death. May the good Lord through His Spirit create a champion out of one of our leaders with the power and the courage and will and virture to take Terri into protective custody. May we as a people have the fortitude and the willingness, if neccessary, to stand boldly and resoultely on these principles against such conditions of our day.
3 posted on 03/22/2005 12:41:16 PM PST by Jeff Head (www.dragonsfuryseries.com)
'Culture of Death' stalks Terri Schiavo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torog
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."- John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798"
but the argument is who has the right to decide what is moral for another human being, what is morality? who has the right to determine what is or is not moral?
would a person having the right to euthanaisa truely effect anyone but that person and there friends and family. how does it effect the religious faith of another person if such is allowed, these right to life people are nothing but christians trying to force their morality on others, they are the enemies of what this country was founded on, separation of church and state. they desire a theocracy.
'Culture of Death' stalks Terri Schiavo
I thikn everyone's missing the point here. To me, it's not even a question of right to die anymore. Do people realize that she will slowly starve to death and dehydrate, and it could as much as two weeks?
Is it me is there something really, really, really wrong with that?
Oh, when someone is convicted and given the death penalty, we make sure they die as humanely as possible, but this lady did nothing wrong, and she's condemned to starve to death???
Someone, please put a pillow over her face or let her live, don't make the woman suffer more than she has already!
'Culture of Death' stalks Terri Schiavo
Quote:
Originally Posted by F L E S H
I thikn everyone's missing the point here. To me, it's not even a question of right to die anymore. Do people realize that she will slowly starve to death and dehydrate, and it could as much as two weeks?
Is it me is there something really, really, really wrong with that?
Oh, when someone is convicted and given the death penalty, we make sure they die as humanely as possible, but this lady did nothing wrong, and she's condemned to starve to death???
Someone, please put a pillow over her face or let her live, don't make the woman suffer more than she has already!
a bunch of neurologists already said the portion of her brain that feels is so seriously damaged she wont feel anything. it will hurt the family more than it will hurt her.
this just proves if hastening of death is better than a prolonged one (even if the person cant feel anything) that we need euthanasia in this country. i hope this incident will bring about renewed debate about euthanasia, and reveal the only opposison to it is by christaian fundamentalists trying to force their faith on others even if it goes against a dying persons wishes.
