Personal Injury - Disabled - Senior Citizen - Accidents
Medical Malpractice - Wills - Trusts - Slip & Fall
Medicaid - Criminal Defense - Tax Shelters
Spontaneous Comas - Estate Planning
|
Posted on 03/28/2005 2:51:39 PM PST by Pokey78
SINCE GOD has His own plans for a final Day of Judgment, He tends not to be permitted much of a say in those judgments made in the here and now. The claims of religion may still exercise a powerful hold over many minds but in the contemporary West those claims are seldom admitted in court — as we have been reminded by the controversy surrounding the fate of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state who has been denied by the courts the food and water necessary to keep her alive.
The religiously inclined in America, and across the globe, have taken Mrs Schiavo’s case to their heart and believe a vulnerable woman’s right to life is being denied. But the courts found in favour of Mrs Schiavo’s husband, her legal guardian, who argued that she would not want to be kept alive in a vegetative condition. Many people who may not necessarily believe that Mrs Schiavo should be allowed to die nevertheless accept that her fate is a matter for the courts, and in matters of life and death the rule of law must prevail.
Attachment to the rule of law is certainly a foundation stone of our civilisation. But so is respect for the moral principles on which our civilisation has been built. And it has often been through religion that those moral principles most central to civilised conduct have been preserved and defended. One does not need to be a member of any church, or a subscriber to any established faith, to appreciate the ethical debt we owe in the West to our Judaeo-Christian inheritance.
To take just one example, our notion of the role that judicial intervention should play in interpreting the law owes a great deal to Jewish tradition. Take the resonant story of the judgment of Solomon. Presented with a child whom two women claimed as their own, Solomon proposed depriving both of the baby by the decision to divide the child into two. One woman acquiesced, the other protested, and by their reactions the woman with the real bond of love to the disputed child revealed herself.
Invoking Old Testament justice may seem anachronistic in an age of advanced medical technology. But the importance of respecting the bonds of love has a profound bearing on Terri Schiavo’s case.
After Mrs Schiavo collapsed in 1990, her husband sued for medical malpractice and claimed that he wished to secure resources so that he could care for her for the rest of her natural life. The court awarded Michael Schiavo $300,000 for loss of companionship and awarded Mrs Schiavo around $700,000.
Mr Schiavo’s conduct since then does not suggest that he has exerted himself to provide the duty of care that he was awarded money to ensure. A year after winning his case on the basis that he wished to nurse his wife,he refused to allow doctors to prescribe antibiotics for a serious infection. In contrast to the position he held when suing for compensation, Mr Schiavo argued that his wife would not wish to live in her disabled condition. Had she died, Mr Schiavo would have inherited her $700,000.
Medical records show that, while her husband was exercising his guardianship, what some of us might consider Mrs Schiavo’s best interests were not well served. Her teeth were not cleaned and five had to be extracted. Mr Schiavo melted down her wedding and engagement rings to make a new ring for himself. And Mr Schiavo now has a relationship with another woman by whom he has two children.
Terri Schiavo’s parents, who oppose her husband’s desire to see her dead, have offered to take on themselves the burden of providing her future care. Mr Schiavo once barred them from even seeing her. And now that her death — at the time of writing — looks to be imminent, thanks to the court’s decision to back Mr Schiavo and deny her nutrition, her parents have had their wish for a Catholic burial overruled.
What would a Solomon come to judgment conclude from this pattern of behaviour? Who really has her best interests at heart? The husband whose heart now seems to be pledged elsewhere? Or the parents whose heart will be broken by her death?
One does not need to believe in any sort of religion to find one’s own sympathies with Mrs Schiavo’s parents. And while I do not share their Roman Catholic faith I am nevertheless grateful for their Church’s teachings on matters of life and death. There is a moral tradition of natural law, going back to Aristotle’s time, which urges us to do what we can to protect innocent life. Whatever its corruptions and abuses, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Aquinas and John Paul II, has upheld the need to protect the vulnerable and voiceless from having their fates decided by the powerful on the basis of utility or expediency.
It is because I believe that tradition still has much to teach us that I am troubled by the fate of Terri Schiavo. She requires no life-support system to survive, she breathes unaided and needs no technology to perform any bodily function. She is brain-damaged, not braindead. The sole outside intervention in her life is the provision of food and water by tube. Now that intervention has been stopped, at the request of her husband, she will slowly die of dehydration and starvation.
Even those found guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, of capital crimes in Florida at least have the right to a speedy execution. But while there is still reasonable doubt about Terri Schiavo’s wishes she is condemned to a lingering death.
You do not, I say again, have to believe that God plays any part in the affairs of Man to see that something big has been forgotten in this case.
I'm just curious. Does the mainstream media ever show photos taken of Terri before she was brain damaged?
I was surfing around google looking at mainstream news stories the other night and kept finding pictures of Terri in her bed gaping and with a blank stare.
I wasn't even able to find the photo I see here all the time of her smiling at her mother. And, I certainly didn't see any photos of her like the ones you just posted.
If all people are seeing is photos of her truly looking like "the lights aren't on and nobody's home" it's no wonder people have been so easily led to believe she's PVS
or even comatose.
I don't watch TV or anything like that. I get my news from the net. So I don't know what the MSM is bombarding people with.
I have heard they are going out of their way to dehumanize Terri, though. That's why I was wondering if they were showing any pictures of her before she was brain damaged
or any photos taken afterwards with her smiling.
Here's the pictures I was talking about, BTW:
http://www.channel4.com/news/news_story.jsp?storyId=1200000
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topstories/news-article.aspx?storyid=34694
Australians don't have a chance to even find 'it' complicated. The TV news speak of Terri as 'the brain-dead woman' whose husband is fighting for her right to die.
Not just the Brits, but most people in the world can see it for what it truly is ...
George Orwell had some comments about this:
"Those who control the past, control the future;
Those who control the future, control the present;
Those who control the present, control the past."
Judgenfuhrer Greer, his lawyers and ilk, and the MSM know this.
Orwell could not have dreamed about how corrupt the MSM is.
Nice to hear sanity from across the pond on this Easter Monday.
As an atheist, I must say that I agree with the thoughts expressed by Mr. Gove in his powerful article. His citing Aristotle and Aquinas point to there being a broader argument than mere religiosity in defense of the choice of life.
All humanity must mourn this injustice.
bump
|
Oh, that's rich.
After denying Terri music, television, or radio playing in her room for ten years, they now "allow" Terri music as they "allow" her to die.
bttt
I know the USSC would not actually make a decision on this, but I can not even begin to tell you how disappointed I am that they didn't even request the lower courts to perform the de novo review as requested by congress.
The fact that they failed to do that, all the way along the line, proves that we have a justice system that is totally out of control.
It is long past time for congress to take a look at the federal judiciary. The massive shifts in population to the west and south means that the 9th circuit is totally inadequate to serve the people. It needs to be seriously broken up into at least 3 additional courts. The courts have ALL become to far removed from the people of this country.
Congress needs to find an adequate way to make the courts understand that they are a co-equal branch, not a superior branch. They can do this by exercising their power of the purse.
I have felt right along that too much emphasis has been placed on the Schindler family's Catholic beliefs, when the case is much better made on medical and humanitarian grounds.
I DO believe their religious freedom has been trodden upon, and as a Christian I empathise, but unfortunately much of America is prejudiced against religious people.
Justice for Terri
Justice for Terri
That's our vow
Never again
No way, no how
Justice for Terri
Will be found
Judicial tyrants
Rightly bound
Justice for Terri
And for us all
No matter our station
Big or small
EV
I'm proud to announce the formation of 'the Justice for Terri Committee' today in Pinellas Park, Florida.
The JFTC is dedicated to a full investigation of Terri's case, exposure of, and appropriate prosecution of, all who were responsible for the events that resulted in her brutal torture and death, the impeachment of George Greer, and bringing about appropriate legal and judicial reform in Florida and nationally to insure that no American citizen must face the horrors Terri was forced to endure ever again.
Many more details will be forthcoming in the next few days for those who share our goals and want to help.
EV
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
