Posted on 03/26/2005 10:22:59 AM PST by wto8585
When Life Becomes an Inconvenience--Jan Markell Olive Tree Ministries, Inc. www.olivetreeviews.org
Semi-Weekly Review of the News - March 21, 2005
I have a built-in radar system that registers a warning when it comes to "mercy killing." My Jewish grandparents fled a section of Russia about ten years before Hitler came to power as they sensed trouble was in the wind. This heritage actually caused me to research the Holocaust and write a best-selling book about it, "Trapped in Hitler's Hell" available through my Web site or print newsletter.
In October, 1939, Hitler ordered "mercy killing" of the sick and disabled, mainly children. The sentiment was to eliminate "life unworthy of life"--kids who would become an inconvenience if they lived. The deaths would soon include adults who were also inferior, feeble, or just too much trouble.
The Nazis made decisions without diagnoses or medical records. They were a part of a barbaric system, and yet when the death camps were finally liberated, many felt that such atrocities were finally thrown on the ash heap of history. They don't understand human nature or the Bible: Only when Satan is cast into the pit will evil end. In the meantime people who stand for righteousness are doing all we can to check it.
No, America isn't Nazi Germany! Yet what is happening here makes me very uncomfortable. Terri Schiavo wants to live. Her parents want to take care of her. But Terri is an inconvenience to her husband and "the system" has favored him thus far. But this battle isn't just for Terri. It's a battle to stop America from going further down a slippery slope that disregards human life. If America's leaders, doctors, lawyers, and judges, allow her to die in the terrible "prescribed manner"--by starvation and dehydration--have we sunk to the level of barbarians?
Terrorists have gotten better treatment and a greater outcry than Terri. Two terrorists killed over 240 people in Africa in 1998. They were brought to America for trial and after seven months of court pleading, their lives were spared in spite of the fact that they had been planning to destroy us indiscriminately.
Timothy McVeigh was a co-conspirator in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. He was given a quick, painless, lethal injection that brought almost instant, peaceful death.
Criminals and terrorists at Abu Grhaib prison were humiliated by a few bad apples in the U.S. military and the world collectively excoriated America at the inhumane abuse of these men.
Civil liberties' activists are characteristically set into hysteria the moment an al-Qaida terrorist is rumored to have been sent to bed without dinner.
Do you get the point?
If Terri Schiavo is executed--and yes, that is a proper word--next week or next year, how much better are we than the savages we are fighting in the war on terror? If America and the world have pity and mercy on thugs and terrorists and not on a defenseless woman who has not had a proper diagnosis or treatment (thanks to her husband), I shudder to think of the repercussions that could come upon our nation.
Also keep in mind that this could come upon you some day as well if "pro-death" activists speak more loudly than "pro-life" activists. Pro-life judges cannot even pass the confirmation process anymore. In America only half the states will impose the death penalty, but strangely, the kind of "progressive thinking" that brought about the near abolition of the death penalty now champions euthanasia and abortion. The Left claims to stand up for the underdogs in life, but I sense they follow the pattern of Ezekiel 33:31: "With their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain."
What is characteristic of a last day's culture is culture decline which the Bible predicts. Good will be called evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Evil men will be "seducers, waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (II Timothy 3:13). But who would ever have thought that such perilous times would have come to a simple hospice room?
In our evil generation God is also moving mightily because some people are remaining "salt and light." There is still time for good to trump certain aspects of evil. The end is not yet. God sees the heart of the righteous and is merciful.
To better understand this "slippery slope," visit my Web site, www.olivetreeviews.org, then visit the category of "Culture Decline."
Awaiting His return, Jan Markell You may pass along these items or have folks sign up on the "Home" page of my Web site, www.olivetreeviews.org. We update "Current Headlines" twice a day and you can access radio programming under "Radio Archives" for the last two years. Our March-April print newsletter, "Understanding the Times," is now out and is free for one year to U.S. residents. Please remember us prayerfully and financially. Contact: Olive Tree Ministries, Box 1452, Maple Grove, MN 55311.
BUMP I am having a similar arguement on another thread using the same documents, but your post is excellent. I will cut and paste and credit you.
The case of Michael Martin, a 41-year-old Michigan man who suffered head injuries as a result of a 1987 car-train accident, is currently before the Michigan Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are scheduled for 5/6/93.
Mary Martin, his wife and legal guardian who has been in contact with the Hemlock Society, wants to have his food and fluids (provided by gastrostomy tube) withdrawn.
The fact that Michael currently expresses the wish to live was ruled irrelevant by the judge because of Michael's "impaired condition."
Yet Michael has been assessed as a level five on the Los Amigos Ranchos scale, a scale used by rehabilitation doctors to assess a patient's improvement. A level five means that the patient is interactive and ready for intensive rehabilitation. Court testimony also indicated that Michael has an I.Q. (after the accident) ranging from between 61-73 -- the range for someone mildly retarded.
Following the Court of Appeals' remand order, probate Court Judge George A. Grieg changed his original ruling and agreed to allow Mary to order the removal of her husband's feeding tube. That ruling was then affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
Michael, who is alert, plays card games, watches TV, loves country-western music, and appears content in his current nursing home, recently spelled out "Afraid" on his alphabet board. When the speech therapist asked him, "Are you afraid of somebody?" Michael shook his head no. "Are you afraid for somebody?" asked the therapist. Michael nodded yes. The therapist queried whether Michael was afraid for the nurses, aides, or his roommate. Michael indicated no. Was he afraid that someone would remove him from the nursing home? Yes.
post 100, was=were
I believe you have misunderstood me. It is irrelevant to this thread IMHO, simply because of the comparisons to the Nazis. I was not calling into question the legitimacy of the diagnosis either way. I do believe that more visibility and study are required as there have certainly been cases where full or partial recovery of these kinds of maladies have been effected. But even so, a person may not wish to go through it all. In any case, those who, on this forum, have thrown up red herrings such as comparisons to Hitler and Jesus Christ are doing more damage than good to the causes they espouse.
Again, I do not question your references at all. They appear well founded.
Did not Mary lose this case?
It is a healthy response to find this to be frightening and alien.
It is my fervent hope that this country will not descend to the levels which Germany did. Attachment studies of Germans have shown they place a far greater emphasis on autonomy and have much higher rates of insecure attachments with their children than Americans and those of other cultures. I have long believed this was the reason they were able to enthusiastically support the euthanasia of their own children.
Yes, eventually she did. But the point remains that a court sentenced a man to die who was playing card games
and using a wheelchair.
Amen!!!
As do I. And this is a cause well worth continuing. It will be far more successful with bringing to light (especially Congress) the extent of this. And it will be far more successful by not attaching those red herrings I referred to earlier. I applaud your efforts.
I don't believe we can ever exclude the courts from probate or custody issues, nor should we. But in this case, the appelate reviews seem to have accomplished the right thing. I doubt that such "protection" would have existed in Nazi Germany.
I disagree that this is not a historical issue. It is proven that if man does not learn from past mistakes he will again make them. Our world is again being setup for mass extermination of those unwanted by society. Right now it's abortion, those in coma's, PVS, etc. But in hitler's time he made all those around him believe he was doing the world a favor by eliminating the unwanted.
Current activities in the world are pointing to the setup for christians to be next. It happens now in other countries, and it is starting here.
First, the attempts to remove us of our guns. Second, removing all reference to God anywhere in public. Third, money, Digital Angel, implanting people to keep track of them.
How many people would really be upset to see a few million christians permanetly shutup in this country? The hostility towards anyone who has values in this country is unbelievable.
You were doing fine up until this last one. Donning a tinfoil hat and claiming that the athiests are going to permanently shut up a few million Christians is a bit over the top.
Perhaps instead of using screwballs like Randall Terry as a spokesman, and comparing Schiavo's plight either to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and/or the rampage of the Nazi Wehrmacht, all of which has made the MSM nothing short of giddy, a plan to get laws passed distinguishing between life support systems and simple feeding systems, and requiring written documentation to justify end of life decisions might be a little more productive.
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