Posted on 03/12/2005 12:58:17 AM PST by nickcarraway
Has somebody told Bob Dole that he wasted his time losing use of an arm in the Italian campaign, because the state of FL has adopted Mussolini-Hitler philosophy after all. What would Andrew Jackson say now of the state he first "governed"?
I didn't know that. How sad.
BTTT!
A dear writer friend, Joan Swirsky wrote probably the best piece I have read on the topic in her article Why Terri (and All Compromised Children) Should Live, in which she so eloquently places the debate on the proper footing...From newsmax.com:
Reprinted from NewsMax.comWhy Terri (and All Compromised Children) Should Live
Joan SwirskyWhen I was 18, I gave birth to my first child. When people asked me during my pregnancy "What do you want, a boy or a girl?" I responded as every parent throughout the ages has responded: "I don't care, as long as the baby is healthy!" I meant it and was blessed with a healthy baby boy. Almost two years later came another healthy baby boy, and my husband and I rejoiced.
Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005
Three years later came our daughter, and again we rejoiced. Karen was a full-term baby that resulted from a totally easy pregnancy and delivery. But when she was 6 weeks old and I was feeding her in the middle of the night, I noticed that she had no "startle response" – the instant reaction of a baby to any noise, even the rustling of a blanket, which indicates that a baby hears the sounds of her or his environment. The next day, I took Karen to the pediatrician, who put a tuning fork to her temple and pronounced that she couldn't hear anything. He prescribed antibiotics and made an appointment with hearing specialists in New York City. But when the antibiotics seemed to work and Karen seemed to respond to the sounds around her, the appointment was canceled and life went on.As the months and years progressed, however, it wasn't clear to me at all that Karen was a hearing child. Sometimes she'd respond to a ringing bell and other times she was deaf to a slamming door. And the fact that she didn't speak was alarming!
Through trips to allergists, neurologists, other pediatricians et al., the "diagnosis" was that "nothing was wrong." Even my new pediatrician said that Karen was a "late bloomer" and that "you shouldn't compare her to your boys."
Finally, in the late 1960s, I took her to a speech-and-hearing center on Long Island, where she was diagnosed as "profoundly deaf." Luckily, surgery proved that it wasn't nerve deafness but rather a buildup of fluid in her eustachian tubes. Teflon tubes were placed in her ears and within six months she was a regular "Chatty Cathy."
But guess what? Karen's hearing wasn't the major problem. Diagnosed with learning disabilities at an early age, she spent all of her school years in special-ed programs. That is when I became – to my everlasting gratitude – intimately familiar with the subculture of the disabled.
I remember taking Karen to Saturday events sponsored by the Association for Neurologically Impaired Brain Injured Children (ANIBIC) in Queens, where children in wheelchairs, children with Down syndrome, children on respirators were offered a respite from their lonely and socially limited lives by volunteers who treated them to a day at the movies or a foray into the exciting world of a subway ride.
Not only volunteers, but also professionals and parents who appreciated the ineffable value of "imperfect" human beings and the degree to which their involvement with them enriched their own lives and that of the larger world that, too often, mistakes high achievement for intrinsic worth.
I remember attending dozens of meetings of the state's Committee of the Handicapped (COH) and what seemed like a thousand "support" groups. And emblazoned in my mind and heart through all of this was the conviction that my daughter's "limited" life was worth every second, every minute, every year of my life in defending her right to have a life.
This is precisely what Terri Schiavo's parents are doing – and have done for over a decade. They are saying that the daughter they cherish, no matter how compromised she may be, is a living, breathing, beloved child who doesn't have to die because of the so-called "wishes" that she left her husband – wishes that have never been documented, signed, tape-recorded … anything.
But now it doesn't seem to be up to the mother who carried and gave birth to her or to the parents who nurtured her every day of her young life or to the friends and family and legions of supporters who continue to value her life. Rather, the decision to end or continue Terri Schiavo's life seems up to her husband of only a few years, who wants to "pull the plug," and to judges, many of whose findings have been favorable to criminals and terrorists!
If, in fact, any judge should deem that Terry Schiavo's very real life should be ended, then every person in our country should be terrified. That ruling would mean that if you or I or any of our children should fall into horrible circumstances that required life-support systems to keep him or her alive, a suspect spouse or a judge who is more an ideologue than a fair and unbiased arbiter could overrule our wishes.
On Friday, a judge in Florida extended a court order to keep Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in place until March 18, allowing her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, time to get medical tests that might prove Terri has greater mental function than formerly thought. This brief respite from what may be their daughter's cruel death sentence – death by starvation – is the good news. But why on earth should they have to prove such a thing? They love her as she is and value the life that's in her.
Deuteronomy says: "I have set before thee life and death … therefore choose life." They have! Should a court do anything less?
Joan Swirsky is a New York-based journalist and author who can be reached at joansharon@aol.com
You are right, Great Article, we should pass it to all of our friends and associates. It really wakes one up to the atrocity being perpetrated on an young, healthy lady and her family by an abusive "in name only" estranged husband who more than likely caused her condition a long time ago and continues to deny her of a most everything and now will starve and dehydrate her to death, a very cruel and torturous death.This is a horrific abuse within Our justice system and must be corrected and Terri given protection from this man, as any abused wife is given protection from her abuser.Remember, that night 15 years ago, this man never called 911: he finally called her brother who after running over to the scene, called 911 himself.
That's disgusting. He's worse than a Communist.
This is all a part of life…the caring for each other, those who represent great value in our lives. To deny Terri’s parents the chance to care for her on the basis that her husband no longer has a use for her should not be a debate, it should be a crime… "
That we care for one another is all a part of life. Give Terri's parents the honor and priviledge of caring for her. Don't allow Michael Schiavo to steal it from them.
There you go, sir. Now, if you will, kindly investigate with equal vigor the myth that Terri "collapsed" fifteen years ago. That was, I have come strongly to believe, attempted murder by asphyxiation. The only possible suspect is her husband.
PING!!!!!!!!
"In short, the more I learned about this case, the more amazed I became that there even was a case. That any court would even consider denying Terri simple basic nourishment, for any reason, regardless of her husband’s motives…
It became very clear to me that we are not talking about euthanasia, assisted death by medical procedure. It became clear that we are not even talking about letting God decide her fate by unplugging her from life support keeping her heart pumping, her lungs breathing and her kidneys functioning…
We are talking about murder by starvation, plain and simple."
Bump!
"The more one looks into this sordid case
the clearer the evil plot.
They're not trying to starve her because she's dying,
but rather because she's not."
Even if we merely fall into a situation where we need to be fed by mouth, and need no other life support, we could be fatally dehydrated on the say-so of an estranged spouse and cooperative judge.
On Friday, a judge in Florida extended a court order to keep Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in place until March 18, allowing her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, time to get medical tests that might prove Terri has greater mental function than formerly thought.
Except that His Royal Poo-Bah-ness the Lord High Almighty Judge Greer has refused to allow any such tests.
Goodnight prayers for Terri!
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