The precedent being set by the Schiavo case strips away this fig leaf of basic decency and humanity. I notice that District Court Judge Whittemore totally ducked the constitutional issue that the Schindler legal team sought to bring to bear in their last dealings with the judge: Whether or not the U.S. Constitution protects the right to life as a fundamental human right. Whittemore's reply was to the effect that no federal or state personnel were involved in the decision, which was unilaterally Michael's to make; therefore, since no governmental personnel were in any way involved, the Schindlers' argument is moot and so the issue of what the Constitution guarantees cannot come into play. Talk about a totally specious argument! (1) Did this guy never hear of Judge Greer? (2) Does the application of the federal and/or state constitution reach only to governmental personnel? What a novel legal theory!!!
If a man kills someone with a gun, he will be prosecuted. But if he can manage things so as to kill a person with a court order, then the fact that the person has been killed is irrelevant: No law has been broken.
There is so much to object to in this grotesque miscarriage of justice. I am also terribly bothered by what appears to be the "take-away" the MSM wants the American public to have in light of Terri's ordeal, even Fox. And that message seems to be: Everyone should have a living will!!! Or a DNR order on file!!! Talk about trying to change the subject in the public mind! Jeepers, the only thing a living will or DNR order would do is expedite the death business. But this case is not about the so-called "right-to-die"; it is about the right to life.
As you note, marron, what is the point of making an eventual, ineluctible fact into a civil "right?"
And I'm with you -- I am not the least bit interested in making a living will or a DNR, preferring to "rest still in God's arms." When He's ready to call me, I'm ready to go. I shall always choose life; and God is Life.
The only other direction one can go in, is the death direction. And speaking as a Christian, that direction goes not only to bodily death, that is to the "first death"; but ever so much more importantly, to the Second Death itself.
It has been said that Satan departed from heaven because he could no longer stand the sight of God. When I look at some of the actors playing in the present tragedy, I think they feel the same way.
Now Satan has always known, from Day 1, that he's playing a losing game -- but he would never tell any of his "recruits" that. Instead, the Father of Lies tells men they can do what they want and get what they want, that they can indeed "turn the wheel on which they themselves turn." And this is the very belief that will seal their fate in the Second Death -- the eternally permanent one.
Sorry to rant, marron. I have been a bit upset lately.
Nevertheless, I am not so distraught that I fail to recognize that your essay was beautiful, and its insights deeply truthful.... Thank you so very much for writing!
Thank you so much for your excellent post! I strongly agree with you that Whittemore's reasoning is specious. It was easy for the Supremes to create a right which does not exist in the Constitution when it suited their agenda (right to privacy, i.e. abortion). And this, the right to life, has a noble lineage directly from the Declaration of Independence - and yet it is ignored.