Posted on 03/21/2005 4:53:53 AM PST by beaureguard
Virtually every single day across this country decisions are made to discontinue extraordinary medical intervention and people are allowed to proceed with the process of dying. In some cases feeding tubes are removed. More often ventilators are turned off. In one case a person starves to death, in another they are suffocated. It happens every day ... but you don't hear politicians screaming about murder. And why? Because those cases don't generate the media heat that this one has.
What makes the Terri Schiavo case different? One thing .. the Schindler's, her parents. I have every bit of sympathy in the world for Terri's parents, but they're living in a dream world. There is nothing left of their daughter .. nothing but a wasted body that transported her on this earth during her life. She is not there. In spite of their hysterical claims, Terri doesn't know who they are when they walk into her room, and she has no emotional response whatsoever when they leave. She is in a persistent vegetative state, not a coma. She will not suddenly sit up one say and ask what's been going on. Her body can sustain only the most basic functions. It will react to pain, but she has no conscious awareness of the pain. The body will react to other stimulus, such as loud noises or lights being turned on and off .. but, again, she has no conscious awareness of any kind as to what is happening around her. Plants react to light. You can hook up a household plant to a machine that can register changes in electrical charges within the plant and determine that the plant has reactions to changes in light and, in some cases, to people coming in and out of the room. Notice that we're describing a plant here .. a plant that has basically the same reactions to stimulus that Terri Schiavo has. The term "persistent vegetative state" wasn't just created out of thin air. Face it. Terri Schiavo has just about the same awareness of the world around her as a philodendron.
We've all read stories about near death experiences. Many times these stories deal with someone who "dies" during surgery. The descriptions seem to always be somewhat the same. The patient suddenly feels themselves leaving their body. They're floating somewhere in the room looking down on the doctors trying to revive them. When the resuscitation works they describe the feeling of falling back into their bodies. The resuscitation of Terri Schiavo didn't work. She didn't die .. neither did she come back to life. Based on the stories we've heard from others, is it possible that the spirit ... the soul of Terri Schiavo is floating around that hospice room, trapped, somehow, between life and death? Could the soul of Terri Schiavo be pleading with her parents to just step back and let her go? Death is really the only certainty of life. It is the one destination we all share. I don't know about you, but I believe that there's something waiting after this life. I look at death as a transition, not an end. When God is through with me on this earth I don't want a bunch of well-meaning people trying to hold me back. If my body and my mind can be saved, fine. But I don't want to be caught in some type of medically induced nowhere waiting for my body to follow me through that transition.
The congress of the United States worked into the early hours of this morning for one reason; to serve the interests of the so-called pro-live movement. This isn't about Terri Schiavo. It's about abortion. The anti-abortion movement saw an opportunity to take Terri's tragedy and turn it into a spectacular pageant in support of life. Quality of life means nothing to these people ... only the fact that some sort of life is present. Please ... keep them away from me if I should ever suffer a tragedy like that which befell Terri Schiavo. The Republicans in Washington have essentially taken Terri Schiavo hostage -- a hostage designed to please their anti-abortion constituency. We've heard much about torture in recent months ... the alleged torture of Muslim prisoners in Iraq. Can it be said that the Republicans are torturing the soul of Terri Schiavo, and doing it for votes?
The matter of Terri Schiavo has already been decided in the courts of the State of Florida. Due process has run its course. But along come the Republicans to once again expand the role of the federal government. From this day on your right to die, your right to instruct your loved ones to not take extraordinary measures to keep you alive if disaster strikes, is a federal matter, not a state one.
There's something rather curious happening in the media. For years .. for over 15 years ... she has been known as Terri Schiavo. Check the legal proceedings: Terri Schiavo. In the Pinellas County (Florida) Circuit Court decision that started the latest round of controversy she is referred to as Theresa Marie Schiavo. Now, however, you will see more and more newspapers and websites, especially those who are sympathetic with the anti-abortion movement, use the name Terri Schindler Schiavo. She has never been known as Terri Schindler Schiavo .. never. But now that's the name some news outlets are using. Why? To give added legitimacy to her parents in this controversy.
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Boortz doesn't get it.
His arguments are completely irrelevant. Not germane to the issue...If she did not, as seems more likely, clearly express her wishes, then as an incapacitated person, she needs, and deserves our protection....I think that the husband's dirty laundry is gonna get washed in public.
Who gives a crap what a pro abortionist has to say on issues of life, liberty and property?
Then be sure to prepare an advanced directive Neal.
Neal Boortz does not believe in God. He makes fun of people who do, both Christians and Muslims, on his show. He has a utilitarian view of humanity. I don't listen to him any more.
And if it turns out that her husband has done nothing wrong and that people worked to keep her alive AGAINST her wishes, then what?
I think the main point of Boortz is that getting the Gov't involved, down in the weeds, in our lives is a bad thing.
I saw my grandmother and a brother-in-law die slowly, screaming their brains out, with cancer, and want NO PART of that. They died by degrees and Gov't legislation will only ensure that suffering continues. Once they stick their noses in where it doesn't belong, that's that.
Is there any evidence that Terri said she didn't want to be kept alive? All I've heard is heresay from her husband. After Scott Peterson, shouldn't the law require more?
Boortz is an aboortzion.
Republicans are trapping her soul in the room? What kind of stupid argument is that?
Neil, Neil, Neil. Admit that you don't know, and in that case, why not err on the side of caution, and allow more doctors to examine Terri?
I told my wife that if I am left in a vegetative state, make sure I hang on until the big malpractice award comes in, then pull the plug. And make sure the lawyer gets a book deal out of it too. </cynisism>
I used to be a Libertarian. That was a long time ago. The Libertarian conception of "morality" is a joke, IMO.
This one statement proves that Boortz is an ignoramus on this issue. There are many other differences between Terris case and the typical 'pull the plug' scenario.
Terri can swallow food and does not require a feeding tube except for the fact that a judge ruled that she CANNOT be allowed to be fed manually. There is no inability on Terri's part to swallow, only due to the judges ruling to not feed her.
Any quadraplegic in the country that cannot communicate verbally could also be ordered to have no other feeding other than by tube and then that dissallow that as well.
The only reason Terri would die is because a judge ordered her to be starved by denying averyone permission to feed her and that is all.
There are many other differences here as well, but I dont have time to go into them all.
But Terri is not 'being allowed to die'; she is being starved to death. And Boortz makes himself into a grand jack-ass for taking this position he takes.
After typing this, Boortz should have hit the delete key.
It's embarrassing.
Folks, Neil just wants to lift his rankings. He'll say anything to do it. Don't give him the pleasure of responding.
What I don't understand is why the husbands wishes (whether he's a rat,liar or cheat)...were not granted. I thought immediate family members decided things like this. Why is the government NOW getting involved in something that's been going on for years? I hope my wishes are granted when I become incompacitated without the government poking their noses in my business because someone doesn't like my husband....
Boortz answers his own question with this.
It's HIS wishes! I hope he's made a living will because that's what's missing here. As long as her parents are willing to assume responsibilities, I see no wrong being done.
IMO, he's smoking it.
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