Posted on 04/01/2005 2:54:16 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
On March 31, 2005, thirty years after feminism’s hey-day in the 1970s, a woman died from dehydration, on the orders of her adulterous husband, who was supported by the courts in his quest to end his wife’s life.
On February 25, 1990, Theresa Schindler Schiavo collapsed in her home and suffered significant brain damage. In 1992, Mrs. Schiavo’s husband Michael was awarded a $1,050,000 malpractice settlement, of which $300,000 was allocated for Mr. Schiavo’s loss of consortium and $750,000 for Mrs. Schiavo’s rehabilitative care. Mr. Schiavo subsequently refused to allow rehabilitative care for his wife.
There are other reasons to doubt Mr. Schiavo’s good will. According to the affidavit of Carla Iyer, a nurse who cared for Mrs. Schiavo during the mid-1990s, Mr. Schiavo “would be visibly excited, thrilled even, hoping that she would die” whenever she contracted an illness, such as a cold or urinary tract infection. “’I’m going to be rich!’” he would exclaim, and “talk about all the things he would buy when Terri died, which included a new car, a new boat” and a trip to Europe.
On other occasions, according to Ms. Iyer, Mr. Schiavo would ask, “When is that b---h going to die?” and “Can’t you do anything to accelerate her death?” During this time, Mrs. Schiavo was capable of limited speech, reports Ms. Iyer. One of her “most frequent utterances” was “Help me.” Ms. Iyer reports that she would record Mrs. Schiavo’s words, as well as Mr. Schiavo’s, in the patient’s chart, only to find them deleted by her next shift. Ms. Iyer’s affidavit was dismissed as “incredible” by Florida Probate Judge George Greer, who allowed the March 18 removal of Mrs. Schiavo’s feeding tube, which led to her March 31 death.
In 1997, Mr. Schiavo became engaged to another woman, with whom he now has two children.
Since the mid- to late-1990s, Mr. Schiavo sought to have his wife’s nutrition and hydration terminated, claiming that she would want to die. The feeding tube was removed and then reinserted twice before the final removal on March 18.
Mrs. Schiavo’s parents, Mary and Robert Schindler, fought for years to prevent their daughter’s death, but federal and state courts found over and over in favor of Michael Schiavo. Mr. Schiavo consistently denied the Schindlers access to his wife’s medical records and even refused to allow them to be by her bedside at the moment of her death.
That court after court could find in favor of the death desired by a woman’s cold-hearted, adulterous husband over the life desired by her loving, heart-broken parents shows the corruption of modern culture. Theresa Schiavo’s death also marks a milestone in modern culture’s embrace of feminist values.
Premier among these values is the wholesale rejection of the sanctity of life. Feminism’s most significant victory was the 1973 legalization of abortion-on-demand. Alan Guttmacher, then president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's verdict in Roe v. Wade as bringing the nation "a step further toward assuring the birthright of every child to be welcomed by its parents at the time of its birth". This bizarre notion that abortion protects children’s rights is rooted in a materialistic view of life, according to which its value is not absolute but is instead subject to its perceived utility. Over the last three decades, the power of this materialistic view of life has expanded to threaten not only the unborn, but also the old and the disabled, like Terri Schiavo.
At the same time that feminism forged the cultural rejection of the sanctity of life, it has also forged the cultural rejection of the sanctity of marriage. In the 1960s, feminists began to see success in their push for no-fault divorce, which they claimed would make it easier for women to leave abusive husbands. Since then, the divorce rate has skyrocketed, as have cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births. Massachusettshas legalized homosexual “marriage”. And large numbers of Americans claimed it didn’t matter when a married President of the United Statesengaged in sexual activity with an intern in the Oval Office.
Against this cultural backdrop, Michael Schiavo waged a campaign to end his wife’s life while conducting a long-term sexual relationship with another woman. The courts ignored the obvious conflict of interest, and talking heads reflect modernity’s moral dissonance by insisting that Mr. Schiavo loved his wife and at the same time claiming that there’s nothing wrong with his “moving on”, the euphemism for shacking up with another woman while his wife lay disabled and denied care.
Once life and family have been trashed, the hard work of providing care for them is devalued as well. Caring for a family isn’t a real job, the feminist culture tells us. Neither is community work. In her affidavit, Ms. Iyer even describes a fellow nurse who “made many comments about Terri being a waste of money, that she should die”. When “an unusual number of patients seemed to die” on this other nurse’s shift, Ms. Iyer reports, she would say, “They are old - let them die.”
Replacing the value that used to be placed on life and on marriage and family is the new value of choice, which is really a code word for selfishness. Women facing unplanned pregnancies may choose to terminate them. An Oscar-winning movie glorifies the murder of a young woman whose paralysis ends her boxing career and, with it, the cheers and applause without which she doesn’t choose to live. We’re even supposed to believe, on the basis of her adulterous husband’s word, that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to be dehydrated to death, and, apparently, large numbers of people do. In all these cases, the value of self supercedes the value of life.
Marriages end at the request of one or both parties, because “it’s not working out” or “we’re not compatible”. Two selves clash, and actually trying to work it out would in some way diminish one or both. Any children involved will understand and be supportive, because they’re better off when their parents are “happy”.
Fulfillment comes not from building and caring for a family, but from career success and all its material trappings—money, power, prestige—in other words, from serving one’s self instead of one’s family.
The irony is that this exaltation of self favors the powerful. The unborn, the old, and the disabled are at the mercy of those on whom they depend. The spouse who makes the most money--usually the man--fares far better after divorce than the one who makes little or nothing, as well as the children for whom she usually retains primary custody.
It’s because feminist values favor the powerful that feminists are so often in the awkward position of having to defend men who have harmed women. Leading feminists, like Patricia Ireland of the National Organization for Women, defended Bill Clinton, on the grounds that his affair with an intern was consensual—in other words, of her choosing as well as his. NOW even opposed charging Scott Peterson with the murder of his unborn son Conner, on the grounds that the nearly full-term Conner wasn’t a person yet.
Michael Schiavo alone was empowered to speak for his powerless wife, and his obvious reasons for wanting her to die were overlooked, while his claim that she would have chosen death is accepted.
The law is supposed to protect the powerless from the powerful. But by ruling against Terri Schiavo’s parents again and again, the courts have perverted justice to enforce the same might-makes-right ethic that would prevail under anarchy.
And Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo lies on the feminist altar of self. May she rest in peace.
Leslie Carbone is the author of Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform.
Anyone who's logged in can add keywords.
I didn't think Mr Silverback added them; I just found them to be strange. If people are "sick" of Terri articles, why go through the bother of viewing them in the first place?
another great article from Breakpoint!!!!
You'll find more people who oppose abortion than euthanasia. I had the same problem with my grandparents. They transposed their wishes on to Terri. They had a living will that would enable us to pull the plug. Needless to say, I'm less than happy but there isn't much I can do.
Anyway, coz they wanted to die, they assume Terri would like it too. This seems to be the root of the problem, many Americans are transposing their desires on to her. IF (emphhasis added) there is a popular support for pulling Terri's tube, this would explain it. Babies? Unconscionale! 'Veggies'? Meh. I don't want to live like this. Just pull the plug. She's better off anyway.
Of course the fact that they were constantly listening to the Deathstream Media going on and on with their left wing demoncr@ptic agenda might also influence their judgment on the matter.
Some people would just be lost if they didn't have something to whine about.
Feminism = liberalism, so they were on the same page with the death culture.
For people who don't use the Internet, particularly FreeRepublic, it's easy to still be misled by the MSM. I have an intelligent friend who won't have a thing to do with the Internet. Ergo, she's frightfully uninformed about Terri Schiavo. When we spoke about Terri I was appalled about her lack of knowledge, particularly concerning the so-called "husband". But I believe for as many uninformed folks these days, there are just as many who are informed.
It takes a very sick mind to spin something of this nature in such a way.
I suspect that there are many decent people who said the same thing : "I wouldn't want to live like that". Maybe they would or wouldn't, but they can't grasp the fact that it is someone elses life they are talking about. Forget the particulars of the case, people have no right to say someone should die because they do not want to live like that. I share your bewilderment. These people have no idea where this killing of Terri Schiavo will lead. Until some day the spouse that loves them no more has them terminated because at one point in their life they said "I don't want to live like that".
That is the mainstay of the whole "movement". Very succinctly put ER.
FMCDH(BITS)
Theresa Schindler Schiavo overload. I want justice to come for those that "let her die in a gentle and dignified manner" as much as anyone. She's gone to a better place now. Let's get busy changing the system that is taking over that sanctioned it. We all know the details and speeches and posturing by both sides in this particular case. Investigate and prosecute if warranted. Do we need to rehash it every third post?.....JMHO
FMCDH(BITS)
What? I thought the Greatest Generation had been downgraded because they took that ponzi scheme money called Social Security? Guess I had the wrong generation. Which generation is it that wants to eliminate SS anyway, it can't be these ME people could it?
Excellent observation.
I was talking about the generation that put an end to Hitler and the Nazis. It was the "Self" philosophy inherent in Socialism that led to FDR's programs.
What exactly are you talking about?
You got that right.
"a step further toward assuring that every person receives the right-to-die at a time designated by and as defined below:"
Whatever the winner of this political standoff determines will get them elected! Good Luck to us all.
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