Sounds familiar.
"...Links...Rechts...Rechts...Links...Rechts..."
Dr. Josef Mengele
Posted on 03/21/2005 8:45:58 PM PST by Captain Peter Blood
Anyone watch the O'Reilly Factor tonight?
I try not to watch O'Reilly too much anymore since he has become so smug and egotistical but I sometimes catch the first few minute of his Talking Points to see what the major topic is.
Of course tonight was the Terri Schiavo situation and it's impact.
I was almost horrified when O'Reilly laid out his feelings for what should happen to Terri Schaivo and people in Persistent Vegetative States, etc..
O'Reilly feels that the State and more important the Doctors should be the final arbiters of who should live and who should die according to their criteria and theirs alone.
I thought O'Reilly, who claims he is a devout Catholic, would be on the other side of this since I have heard him claim how precious life is. But no he isn't it, he would prefer to see Terri Schiavo die a horrible death and doesn't even feel her family should have any input into the situation.
Life no matter how you look at it is a precious and wonderful gift and every effort should be made to help those who are most in need, people like Terri Schiavo.
Any of you out there remember the Sunny Von Bulow case? Mrs. Von Bulow was given a overdose of insulin by her husband Claus and out into a deep coma or PVS state. There is no hope of her ever coming out it.
Yet it may surprise many of you out there to know Mrs. Von Bulow is still alive 25 years later and in a hospital in New York City. Her two children have paid the bills all these years to keep her well taken care of and have never once even publicly talked about pulling her feeding tube and allowing her to die "With Dignity" from starvation. God knows what it has cost them but they feel they are doing the right thing.
For those people like Terri Schaivo, who certainly is not in the shape Mrs. Von Bulow is in, where the State, i.e. Medicare & Medicaid are paying the bill there is a presumption that if there is no hope, as determined by the Doctors, then legally the State can have the plug pulled or the patient can either be moved somewhere else or die, most likely by starvation.
So according to the new O'Reilly Principles all people in a so called PVS, there are approximately 10,000 in this condition, should be evaluated by the Doctors or Powers That Be and if there is no hope have their feeding tubes and plugs pulled to make the bed available to someone else and not tie up resources on "Hopeless and Forgotten Souls" like Terri Schiavo and Sunny Von Bulow.
Also where is the Humanity in letting someone slowly starve to death? My God you treat your pets better than that. If it must come to making such a decision then at least have the guts to give those poor souls a lethal injection and get it over with quickly. Prisoners on Death Row get a better deal although if they were being starved to death it would be called Cruel and Unusual Punishment, a Violation of their Constitutional Rights.
Where are Terri's Constitutional and Civil Rights? Did she cease having them when she became a non-person and unable to communicate?
We as a Nation are now on that Slippery Slope when we allow the State and Doctors to now call the shots on who lives and who dies if the medical bills are being paid by Medicare and Medicaid. It's just a short hop to the other side when the private insurance companies are making that same assessment also and are probably doing so now, we just don't see it out there being talked about.
There is a larger issue than just Terri Schaivo here, she just put a face on it that we can see.
It is appalling to me to see that the polls on this issue seem to be so lopsided in favor of letting this woman die. Have we truly become a nation that has somehow embraced a "Culture of Death"? If so then we are in worse trouble than I thought for we are slowly losing our soul as a country and the values that made this country and helped found it are going down a long drain pipe. I truly fear for our future if this is the course of action that is deemed proper. All this really tells me is that most people have not thought this out and if confronted with this kind of burden and decision may have a different feeling about it.
I Pray for Terri Schaivo and hope for the best, but it is hard to think that will happen with so a committed group of people that are in favor of and pushing for her death as if it were some kind of Prize.
I don't know how we came to be here, but somehow we did. I think it's part psychobabble, and part liberal speak, because for them, "feelings" are everything!.
I'm going to make a conscious effort to make sure I don't use these words wrongly again.
And otherwise, I don't care a whit about what O'Reilly either feels or thinks--LOL!
Good point. It's a case of osmosis.
Vibrator.
Two things shocked and revolted me about Bill's "Talking Points":
1) Bill made reference to "pulling the plug" on Terri. What an ignorant remark. She is NOT on life support!!! She is NOT on a ventilator. She is NOT on a heart-lung machine. This is about providing her with food and water. If a death row inmate or a terrorist were being deprived food and water, the ACLU and every liberal group in America would be screaming and up in arms. If she were a fur seal or an endangered species and basic nutrition was being deprived, the NY Times, the Washington Post, ABCNBCCBSCNN, and NPR would be editorializing (probably blaming Bush) against such mistreatment.
2) Bill referred to Michael Schiavo as "her husband." And this is where the legal system has gone so far astray. He is in an adulterous relationship that has produced 2 children. Any half-wit can see the blatant conflict of interest that exists here. Michael Schiavo should have been removed from the case years ago. Husband? No. Adulterer? Yes. And it could be argued bigamist. Unless Florida statute allows for this, his behavior should have resulted in a divorce decree.
Shame on Bill. I am normally a fan of his, but he came to the table on this one misinformed and looking ridiculous. I also find his Catholic-optional behavior sad. He complains about the secular drift of society and then he bends his knee at the philosophical altar of humanism.
"All this really tells me is that most people have not thought this out and if confronted with this kind of burden and decision may have a different feeling about it."
That's presumptuous. Maybe "most people" have thought about it and wouldn't want to see a loved one live a life that is so much less than life.
...John Gibson nailed it today with his Word editorial. ...
Gibson nails it dang near everyday. He's one of my favorites, along with Britt Hume.
I feel like BOR just kind of runs down the middle of the road a lot because he thinks that's what's made him. Back when he was butt kissin sKerry for an interview was the last straw for me, that and his premature dissin of the Swift Vets.
He right at least once a night though when he says bloviating is his job.
Huh? He paid the woman off AND had her agree not to discuss the issue. If this is not his admission of guilt then I don't know what is!
Glad I missed it. He makes me sick.
The Pomposity Factor, he's in full appeasement form... pandering to the lefties tonight...
"If he receives communnion, then he is guilty of sacrilege."
HUH???
mind explaining that for me???
There is a huge difference between heroic measures that prolong suffering and murdering a person by starving them to death. In this case, actions are being undertaken to kill Terri Schiavo. Otherwise, she would not die.
If you are baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church and you later reject any teaching of the church, you commit a mortal sin. If you receive the Sacrament while in a state of mortal sin, you commit the sin of sacrilege, which is the misuse of sacred persons, places, or things.
That's right. I forgot about the payoff!
I was shocked that O'Reilly was so uninformed about what is happening with Terri. He was up on the Fla court things, but anything to do with the family, Terri and what the other doctors or people were saying, i.e., the affidavits of the nurses re Michael's treatment of Terri and Terri's friends contention that she and Terri were planning on leaving their husbands and renting a place together - they were both in bad, unhappy marriages. O'Reilly should have known these things.
Is the bill in Congress for the purpose of having the courts decide Terri's fate as opposed to letting her husband decide?
"There is a huge difference between heroic measures that prolong suffering and murdering a person by starving them to death."
Right. The poster was wondering how most people could be of the opinion that Terri should be killed. I'll submit that most people don't take her specific circumstances into consideration but instead, put themselves in that position (of either Michael or Terri) and claim they would choose death. I don't find that shocking.
"Lise is a member of the ACLU"
Well, that certainly pegs her.
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