Posted on 03/30/2005 9:07:57 PM PST by syriacus
It's astounding how many people want Terri Schiavo dead and aren't afraid to say so.
I got clobbered by readers who reacted to Tuesday's column about how the "culture of death" has placed its compassionate arms around Terri, the brain-damaged Florida woman who is being starved to death.
E-mail and phone calls (more than 150 at last count) are running 2-1 against me.
"It's nuts, this 'life at all costs' mentality," a caller said.
There was general agreement: Terri should die and starvation ain't so bad.
"Her parents are being very selfish by keeping her alive. Your reference to her starving like the prisoners [at] Dachau and Bergen-Belsen? Oh, come on. She will not be in any pain. She will go gently to sleep. I'm a nurse."
So let's starve death row inmates instead of killing them with lethal injections. I mean, if starvation is so gentle and painless. Ignore the faint-hearted who gripe this is "cruel and unusual" punishment.
"Her brain is mush. There has never been a case of a person being in a [persistent vegetative] state this long and having any kind of recovery. There's not gonna be a recovery. She's 40-some years old. Who's gonna take care of her? Her parents? They're going to die soon themselves."
A 1984 car crash left Terry Wallis of Mountain View, Ark., a quadriplegic. He lay silently in a "persistent vegetative state" for 19 years. Suddenly, in summer 2003, he began talking. He asked for his mother - and for a Pepsi. I spoke with his parents.
Terry Wallis' wife, after swearing she would care for him forever, left him for another man and had kids with the guy. (Sound familiar?)
Custody was given to his parents, who were often depressed. They prayed a lot.
Today, Terry Wallis is determined to walk. His daughter, Amber, 6 weeks old in 1984, is 21 and cares for him.
The most frequent gripe readers have is that I am not a doctor and so should not comment on Terri Schiavo's medical condition.
"Interesting that you put yourself above trained doctors. As a doctor myself, I find this low mentality repugnant. You and Bush spread this dribble for your own good and care nothing about Terri, her wishes or her husband. Have you, Bush and the Republicans gone brain dead? If this is the case I hope someone pulls your plug." - Bill Helton
I received many comments like that. Reading them gave me a headache - oops, I'm not a doctor. I'm not qualified to make that diagnosis. Sorry.
A neurologist from New Jersey sent me this:
"I fear that our culture will push the line further as to who should live and who should die. I fear for the old, the young, the sick and the helpless. I fear becoming one of the helpless. - Maria Choy, M.D.
Me, too. After Terri Schiavo, who will the culture-of-death vultures circle? A hint. Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist whose medical opinion was key to a Florida judge ordering Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, was on TV this week candidly admitting he doesn't believe Alzheimer's patients have constitutional rights.
So first it's people like Terri, then the Alzheimer's sufferers, then perhaps end-stage cancer victims, and so forth.
Why not? Who would want to live like that? Are they not burdens?
Charles Dickens captured it when he had Scrooge confront the do-gooders who wanted to save the helpless, deemed worthless to Victorian England.
"If they had rather die they had better do it and decrease the surplus population."
You mean they have POWER?
I've done all right, thank you.
You really are about 1,000 feet down now, but you just keep that shovel working. LOL
Of course the MSM is going to spin the Pope feeding tube story. So will the Democrat "Dr. Death/Traitor" Party. But, at the end of the day, the American people are going to see that whether the life at stake is Terri Schiavo's or the Pope, that life is glorious and must be protected for all, from the unborn to the infirm, disabled and elderly, etc. Had all the people that voted for GW Bush (some sixty-two million plus) demonstrated and marched across the country, Terri would not be facing death today. Terri's death, when it comes, will have not been wrought by Jeb or GW Bush, but by all of our own, collective hands that have done nothing but yak and complain about other folks inaction. The American people are to blame for letting Terri pass on!!! Maybe one day we will will wise up and realize that our fate is in our own hands. All that is needed to change the judicial order in this country is to destory the Democrat Party at the polls. End of story!!!
Nope, actually you have done exceedingly poorly; all things considered.
By Gosh, You're right!!!
When I remember my grandfather, who lived til his eighties, mentioning the poor house of the past, it was always with a chuckle. He would laugh about it in a matter of, "I scratched out enough of an existence to avoid the poor house." This indicated his sense of pride. (He went on to live quite comfortably.)
Syriacus: By Gosh, You're right!!! Scrooge sounds just like Greer and Michael. "Terri chose to starve herself to death. " "Our hands are clean "
At last -- I can clearly see the parallel between A Christmas Carol and Terri's situation.
Thanks, no pardons. You've taught me something new.
And if the above weren't enough, you don't know when to quite,but keep flailing.
Scrooge wasn't a judge. He just didn't want to give two strangers money, on the street, for people who refused the charity he was already paying for.
Do you support welfare for people who refuse to work? Would YOU give money to some strangers, who stopped you on the street,asking for money for the poor? Gee........maybe you would.
I bet that you don't know that Charles Dickens was a FLAMING LIBERAL and a knee jerk bleeding heart. I love his books, I understand his words, I know his biases, and I know what he intended his books to do! Obviously, you don't and don't care.
You think that anything can be made to mean anything you want it too; however, that is NOT the case. Words have meanings,so too do whole sentences. Though apples and oranges are both fruit, they are NOT the same fruit and even IF you coated an orange red, it would NOT be an apple.
I'm changing text a bit
Try the audio link
BRAVO for your grandfather; he set a wonderful example.
Papa was Canadian, and then became a US citizen. Of ALL of the people I have EVER met in my life, he was the most patriotic. He LOVED being an American and never took it for granted. Sometimes when I recall this sense of pride, I get goosebumps. That's how powerfully he revered his nation.
Are you now saying that Teri DID choose to starve to death? You keep posting that. Okay, then since Terri DID choose to starve herself, why are you having fits over it and blaming everyone but Terri?
My grandfather was born in America, but he was VERY patriotic and instilled that same patriotism in me. :-)
I'm really dissapointed in all the people running around screaming with their hair on fire.
Today...significant numbers of Freepers plunged Brutus/Cassius daggers in Jeb Bush's back.
Margining Terri's plight with culture trends is something Homer Simpson would not arrive at.
In other parts of the world...lunatic muslims disfigure and kill their own sisters in defence of that mixed up book they follow.
In Asia......young girls are sold into prostitution for a family debt.
China sends soldiers to surround entire villages in rural areas where aids has expanded beyond containment...and ensure that no one living gets out.
They are doomed......and will die.
Chinese sell their blood [whole blood].....one needle serves a hundred....and become infected from contact.....Neanderthals had better hygiene understanding.
In the Iran/Iraq war...the Iranians hung plastic keys around childrens necks[a symbol of entrance acceptance into Heaven]...these children were sent in by the hundreds near thousands ....to walk before tanks thru Iraqi minefields.
There is **No death culture in America!!
You live in the top 5% of the entire Earth in lifestyle!
Opportunism exists.....dial 1-800 Hello Reality.
It does not margin a fallen or decline terminal reality for America.
Such notions play exactly to Von Shillary Klinton and the fatalist Liberal mind.
MSM moments.....then go and windsurf like John Kerry.
or do a Jessie Jackson [Sob Sob]....then go hang with crack smoking rappers.
Concerning Shiavo....
Are you seeing this with reason glasses on.
Or has hysteria swept you down river?
My elderly parents are changing their living wills now. As my mom said, " I had no idea they could starve people to death." They are going to make them VERY specific. Not to use ventilators and things like that. Food and water are NOT extraordinary means to keep a person alive.
We're comparing two fictitious stories, one by Dickens and one by the Schiavo in-laws.
Thanks again for showing me that very strong parallel.
As I said above, I learn a lot from people who make unkind comments, as long I maintain my composure and pay attention to what they say.
Good for your parents.
What does that have to do with me?
BTW, you are overgeneralizing in your description of pro-Terri people.
Jackson, Nader, Lieberman, and many liberals have fought against Terri being starved.
Concerning Shiavo.... Are you seeing this with reason glasses on. Or has hysteria swept you down river?
I've paid attention to the ACLU's involvement in starving Terri and promoting physician assisted suicide.
Indeed. They are.
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