Schiavo action disrespects democracy, family
Guest opinion: Gema Hernandez
Published by news-press.com on November 8, 2003
Many articles have been published about Terri Schiavo and Gov. Jeb Bush’s intervention in preventing an individual her right to die with dignity, but none of the articles has addressed a more troubling situation for our state and for our nation: that of imposing a personal belief on all the citizens of the state.
Molding public policy or ignoring established public policies for the sake of a personal belief is not the American way. This is troubling because our country just fought a war for the sake of democracy, and in a democratic system the needs of the many supercede the need of the one, particularly if that one is a governor elected to represent the wishes and desires of many people. Jeb’s actions not only blur the separation of church dogma and state, but also fuse the three branches of government into one, the executive branch eliminating the checks and balances established by our Constitution and weakening our already wounded judicial process.
The decision to extend the dying process is incomprehensible because it goes against the Republican party’s basic core values: less government interference, more personal responsibility and support of family values.
Now government is interfering more and more in personal and private decisions to a point that it is up to the government and not the family or the individual to decide when a person like Terri should live or die. His decision has now created another ward of the state in an institutional care situation rather than in a community care situation like he said he favors. This decision has also removed all financial responsibility from the family, placing the financial cost in the hands of the state and creating a third contradiction. Most importantly, it redefines what constitutes a family by negating the rights of the husband who, with the wife, forms the essence of the American nuclear family.
Once a man and a woman get married, in the words of the church, the IRS and all civil institutions, a family is formed, “for this man this woman will abandon her parents.” Therefore, Jeb’s actions in support of the parents bring new meaning of what constitutes a family, and this meaning excludes husbands or wives in favor of parents. Jeb’s actions against the wishes of the husband and the courts once again contradict his preaching, presenting a fourth contradiction between actions and words in the lives of politicians.
Yes, the dangers of his actions go beyond the obvious. Privacy rights are becoming an endangered species and our right to die with dignity is the first casualty.
— Dr. Gema G Hernandez is former secretary of the department of elder affairs.
She lives at Fort Myers Beach.
But this is the major reason of why they're trolls.....they don't read, research, use common sense, or try to understand. They are willfully ignorant and willfully stubborn.