Looking Beyond Terri (Schiavo)

Chancey's Blog ^ | March 24, 2005 | Matt Chancey

[Law]

Well, it’s finally happened. We now live in a country where judges have officially obtained deity status. With Roe v. Wade, judges claimed the right to determine who has the privilege of birth. With the Terri Schiavo case, activist judges now claim the power to determine when we all have to die.

Some would claim this view to be a little extreme. But the facts are these: a severely disabled woman in Florida is being starved to death because a tiny number of judges have determined that her life is not worth living anymore. Terri is not a vegetable. She can eat through a feeding tube and breathe without assistance. Her brain is not dead. She can smile and recognize people. Terri is simply helpless—like a baby. For the past several years, Terri’s husband has been trying to kill her (after winning a ton of money in a lawsuit on her behalf), instead of providing Terri with physical therapy. Activist judges are helping him accomplish his goal.

There is something insidious and damnably arrogant when people arbitrarily decide when another person’s life is not worth living. But we have allowed judges to do this in our society for many years.

It seems that human life in American today has no intrinsic value anymore. We once lived in a society where the vast majority of people believed all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator with an unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Quick vocabulary lesson: “unalienable” means something that cannot be separated from us—especially by the government.

Today, your life is only valuable “if.” If you have sufficient health to enjoy life. If you are not a financial drain on your family or the state. If you are desired by your parents. If unelected federal judges think your life is worth living.

This is the bottom line with Terri Schiavo. It’s not about living wills or assisted suicide. She didn’t have a living will and we don’t know her present wishes. So, the question is “do we empower the State to decide whether she lives or dies?” Terri has committed no crime. She has not violated any law that would give the State the right to kill her. None the less, the State made its decision through activist judges, and a helpless woman in Florida is being slowly starved to death.

Modern medicine is presenting us with situations where our ethical presumptions are being tested to the limits. I fear that as a society, we are choosing death over life and that is not a good prognosis for the health of a nation. Looking beyond Terri Schiavo, all our lives could be in jeopardy. What kind of example are we setting for our children? How compassionate are they going to be on us when we get old and start becoming a “nuisance?”

And what of the judges? When are our elected officials in the executive and legislative branches of government going to wake up and realize that their oaths of office—not to mention basic human decency—require them to stop these activist judges from destroying our lives and liberties?

Our constitution mandates that no person be denied the right to life without due process of law. The constitution is the supreme law of the land. The Constitution trumps every ruling ever made by an activist judge. The Constitution trumps every fly-by-night regulation enacted by faceless bureaucrats. The Constitution even trumps the devious intentions of a husband who desires to use the color of law to murder his helpless wife.

It’s time to do some serious soul searching as a nation. It’s time for serious repentance. And it’s time to impeach some judges. No more study committees. No more pointless debates. No more passing the buck. If President Bush and the GOP have the guts to take on something as volatile as Social Security Reform, they can at least bring Americans a few judicial heads on the proverbial silver platter. How many more people have to die before the madness ends?

[polymuser]

Demand of your representative(s) that they impeach out-of-control judges NOW.

Eliminate robes and other visual symbols of 'specialness' for judges. Judges are no different than congressfolk or administrators.

Expose truths about lawyers and judges and their affiliations.

Tell litigious people you know what you think of them.

[grassboots.org]

Here is a new number to call at the Governor Bush Office to encourage him to "err on the side of life":

1-850-487-1111

Be nice and thank him for what he has done so far. I believe that some of what was said about the Florida Republican senators before they had even voted (by RT) may have forced them into the wrong vote.