Wesley J. Smith: Terri Schiavo Was Not a Carrot

The use of the "V-word" continues to be used in the most "enlightened" places. Today, it is an interview with health author Jane Brody in the NYT about her new book on planning for death. From the interview:

Q: When is the right time to start planning for death?

A: Start thinking about it when it's unlikely to happen any time soon. It's much easier to do it then. It's less painful. Get it out of the way. Many people are saying, "I'm going to take action now while I still feel good and I'm still healthy." You don't have to be old. If you recall, Terri Schiavo was 26 when she suffered a heart attack that deprived her brain of oxygen and left her a living vegetable for 15 years, at great cost and trauma to her family.

Terri Schiavo was not a carrot or a turnip. She was a human being with a profound cognitive disability. Calling her a "V" demeans her and dehumanizes her moral worth as a human being--just as the odious "N-word" does people with dark skin. It should never be used among enlightened people. Indeed, we need to grow as a culture so that anyone using it is treated with the same disdain by polite society as we do now to anyone who uses the crude "N" epithet.

Second: Terri's family was certainly grief stricken over her injury--the precise cause of which will never be known. But that is not what so badly traumatized them, and it is not what extracted a "great cost." Those inflictions came from the horror they felt--and still feel--because they were not permitted to care for her for the rest of her life in order to, instead, slowly dehydrate her to death by court order to the applause of much of society.

Brody needs to get a clue as to both her facts and her lexicon.

I was in Florida when this all went down. I first noticed the story when I saw a tag line about a family trying to save their “brain dead” daughter from being starved to death. I thought, “why would anyone be trying so hard to save this woman?” When I checked it out, I couldn’t believe the evil incarnate that was in play. The Media willfully missed the boat on the story and misrepresented every fact from beginning to end. It is unforgiveable. And how about that Catholic Bishop leaving the country during Easter, while Terri was being executed? God will deal with him in good time.

Wesley Smith: What I find terribly ironic, is that in 1998, Terri had more than $700K in her trust account to pay for her care. The bulk of this money instead went to lawyer George Felos and other attorneys, to help end her life.

The government’s job is to protect the lives of its citizens. That is why, for example, we have government-funded suicide prevention centers.

http://www.courttv.com/talk/chat_transcripts/2005/0324schiavo-debate.html

One of the most noted rabbis (who passed away c. 1986/ c5756)
discussing this isse back then remarks (killing them
as Terri was) is murder even if the person is in a condition
where “insensitive” persons refer to (the potential victim)
as a “vegetable” This is Rav Moshe Feinstein z”l, as
quoted in Abraham S. Abraham’s Nishmat Avraham which I
remember requesting in the library four years (!) and
I *think* a few days ago. I also personally do not think
Terri was in a “PVS” state, based on discussions I have had
with persons recovering from brain injury.

As I recall, the New York Times not long after Terri’s
murder had an article about “many levels of consciousness”
Ms. Brody should consult her employer’s archives (I have
it here, but not at hand.) Also, if she thinks the real
“trauma” in 2005 was that of Terri’s family, IMO she has
no credibility on medical issues.

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