Posted on 06/16/2005 6:53:51 AM PDT by rhema
. . .People of goodwill may disagree about Terri Schiavo's case. Yet as our society strays from its traditional belief in the essential dignity of every human life, we all must grapple with the implications of the notion that some lives are "not worth living."
Today, assisted suicide is lawful in Oregon. In the Netherlands, according to the New York Times, prosecutors no longer pursue cases against doctors who kill severely impaired babies after birth. The temptation to deal with the defective and incompetent by eliminating them is likely to grow as our society ages. Today, approximately 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. In coming decades, projections suggest that about 40 percent of us will spend roughly 10 years in an infirm, demented condition. The way we deal with this situation will say much about us as a society.
Currently, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is staging an exhibit . . . called "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race." It examines the idea of "lebensunwertes Leben" -- lives not worthy of life --which the Nazis used to justify their elimination of thousands deemed unfit to live: the retarded, the defective and the seriously ill.
Some German intellectuals championed this idea well before the Nazi era began. A 1920 book, for example, decried "the meticulous care shown to existences which are not just absolutely worthless" -- the disabled and deformed -- "but even of negative value." It called for applying the "healing remedy" of premature death, in order to "eliminat[e] those who were born unfit for life or who later became so."
Today, we must ensure that we ourselves are not tempted to start down this slippery slope --moved by free choice rather than totalitarian edict, and seduced by a shallow notion of "death with dignity."
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
If I were in a PVS for more than a decades because the courts wouldn't allow my wife to remove the tube, I'd want her to move on with her life.
No. It took the Schindler's encouragement before he even started dating again years later.
How sad. My husband and I married for better or for worse. That means whatever comes at us.
Easy answer: If you're so urgently in need of a new woman, divorce her. BINGO!! Can't walk both sides of the marriage and vows aisle.
Michael waited four or five years before he started dating again. That is an appropriate mourning period.
Thou shalt not murder trumps marital rights.
Terri collapsed in 1990. Michael and Jodi were building a house together in 1994. Michael dated other woman prior to Jodi. So your time line is off by at least 2-3 years.
I have to keep going back to square one with the recent joiners of the thread... What if my wife had a living will? People generally agree that it is ok to remove the tube in that case. But marriage is supposed to mean that you spouse has medical proxy powers (and a heck of a lot more!). This is how well-meaning conservatives are undermining marriage. Medical proxy forms should be for cohabitating singles or gays.
Wrong
Terri collapsed in 1990. Michael and Jodi were building a house together in 1994. Michael dated other woman prior to Jodi.
Easy answer: If you're so urgently in need of a new woman, divorce her. BINGO!! Can't walk both sides of the marriage and vows aisle.
Because he knew what the Schindlers would do. They would not honor Terri's wishes and let her die with dignity. Plus, I'm not sure what the laws are these days for divorcing someone in Terri's condition. He might not have been able to divorce her. Besides, he didn't want to. She was still his wife in spite of what had happened to her, and did everything possible in those first few years to help her recover. It was only after the doctors told him she would never recover that he eventually psychologically let go of that belief and started to get on with his life. He never stopped loving Terri, rather attempted to honor her wishes when all hope was gone, until he met the impediment of the Schindlers taking this to court.
And years later, at the Schindler's urging, he started dating again.
Yes.
Terri collapsed in 1990. Michael and Jodi were building a house together in 1994. Michael dated other woman prior to Jodi. So your time line is off by at least 2-3 years.
1990 to 1994 IS 4 years. So timeline is correct (I said 4-5 years). Exuse me for not being more exact to meet your high standards. And he dated at Robert Schindler's advice and encouragement. Explain that, you ignoramus.
So you would want your wife to stay married to you while she lives with and possibly has children with someone else? Isn't that kind of selfish of you? Wouldn't it be better to let her divorce you and marry the other man and give her children a proper home?
What I would want would be for her to be able to remove the feeding tube and move on with her life. Once the courts got involved there were no good options. Getting a divorce is hardly a good way to honor our marriage, and it would mean that she'd have to drop the fight to have the feeding tube removed.
Give me a break it was not years later.. you originally said 4-5 and thought that was reasonable - is 1-2 years ok with you?
More like 4 years, at minimum 3.
So let me get this straight, you are PVS and want her to pull the plug - so in essence you want to die, and consider yourself to be in a state of non existence. So why would you demand that she stay married to you when she really wants to be with another man. Sounds very selfish to me. If you want her to be able to move on then be true about it - wanting her to move on while at the same time demanding that she be tied to you maritally is being less than truthful. If you really wanted her to be able to move on you would selfishly release her from the bonds of your marriage vows.
Suicide isn't scriptural either.
Depriving a human being of food and water is murder. Period.
Once she remarries she loses the power of medical proxy over me. The ideal solution would be for my wife to have the power to pull the plug, and then move on.
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.