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 ...
Of course, Michael lived outside the 'bonds' of his marriage; for all intents and purposes; there were no 'bonds'; there was no covenant to observe.
As for the 'Terri' crowd, wanting the State to be involved; it was from the very beginning - by Federal Court decisions; and 'bad ones' at that.
Appreciate your 'Covenant' with your wife; but .why don't you. . .or why won't you. . .at the least, write in a Will; that you want that 'covenant' to include Living Will decisions' and that they be observed.
If it mean that much to you; then do what it takes to have your covenant legally protected; by every possibility. . .just in the case, something should just not go the way you planned it.
So if a 90 year old stroke victim with a carefully documented living will has his feeding tube removed, that is also murder. There is no "right to die" at all.
That is fine, that is a principled position that I understand. The Terri case is based on their being a "right to die", with the question being about who makes that decision.
After the Terri fiasco my wife and I probably will get living wills. But this is also one more area in which marriage has been eroded. It is not enough that husband and wife trust each other.
She collapsed in Feb 1990 - he moved out of the Shindler home in May of 1992. Jody and Michael start building a new home in 1994. So at most it was 2 years, cause there were girlfriends before Jodi.
Wrong...MS undermined HIS OWN marriage by committing adultery and therefore gave up his rights in my view. Not one single person on here has advocated that a marriage contract should not be respected UNLESS the husband/wife commits adultery, which creates motive. She did not have to die. He could have divorced her and turned her over to her family, he clearly did not have any conscience or sense of shame as he was an adulterer, so why didn't he do that?
Not one single person on here is against living wills. In fact, we encouraged you to write one. You can put in there that she can pop your head off and pull your heart out through your throat for all I care, that is between you and her. However, I would suggest NOT donating your brain to science, unless you want it in the jar clearly labeled "abnormal".
So you are brain dead - what does it matter what happens to you? From your description she lost the power to pull your plug anyway, so why not let her move on?
One problem with that logic...SHE WASN'T DEAD YET!
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Marriage gets eroded when people do not honor their marriage vows, which in case you did not know means for better or worse. Some people just take the for better part which is a far cry from what marriage is all about. In this case Michael only lasted as long as it took to get the medical malpractice suite awarded. Soon as that happened he was history to Terri. All he wanted at that point was for her to die so he could collect on the money.
Now you are sounding crazy. Terri HAD spoken of leaving Michael. She DID share this with her good friend and she may well have brought it up the very night of her "collapse" before her family had been made aware of it.
You don't know anymore than any of us so stop sounding so sanctimonious.
Frankly your impression of a marriage sounds pretty scary, more like absolute control!!
Yes for a woman who didn't want to live like that she held out pretty long. Anyone who works at a hospital or with sick animals know that anyone or anything that has given up on life does not live long in most cases.
"we trust each other"
How incredibly naive.
You are a fool.
You continue to ignore the fact that SOME HUSBANDS ABUSE THEIR WIVES whether you like to admit it or not.
And NO WAY should they determine their wife's undeclared "wishes" simply because of the "covenant of marriage" as you like to say.
You assume an awful lot in this situation.
For sure not. . .much more complicated, of course (and what if both husband and wife are injured in an accident. . .who, then. . .makes the decision?) Given the following 'infomercial' so to speak on World Net Daily - and reading the following. . .do not even know that a Living Will is sufficient - at least specify what 'heroic' means includes. . .No, this issue strikes hard into political agendas ie just a 'sampling of reading available from WND:----------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------- WHISTLEBLOWER MAGAZINE WHO LIVES, WHO DIES? The Terri Schiavo case was only the tip of the euthanasia iceberg
"A Nation Adrift," plus the blockbuster Whistleblower special issue "MULTICULTURAL MADNESS: How Western Civilization has been turned upside down in one generation" –
The whole world watched as 41-year-old Terri Schiavo was slowly starved and dehydrated to death by order of a judicial system that defied Congress, the president and – many believe – the law itself.
But the Terri Schiavo story was not unique, as a stunning new edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine – titled "WHO LIVES, WHO DIES?" – makes frighteningly clear. In fact, Terri's case is only the tip of the iceberg.
Take the case of Marjorie Nighbert, for example. Although she had asked for nothing more than a "little something to eat" and a drink of water, a Florida judge ruled she was not "competent" to make such a request for food, and the 83-year-old stroke victim was starved and dehydrated to death in a nursing home with full agreement of her family.
And yet, for every high-profile case involving the courts, many other elderly and disabled Americans are being quietly "helped along" toward death before their time, behind closed doors, without public knowledge.
In hospices and nursing homes across the nation, citizens are being starved and dehydrated by removal of a feeding tube, or by refusal to insert a feeding tube when one is needed, or by administration of overly high doses of morphine.
It's a murky legal and ethical area where "quality of life" and economic considerations increasingly are trumping sanctity of life as society's highest value – ending in premature death for too many of the nation's elderly and disabled citizens.
This edition of Whistleblower will show how, despite America's many highly ethical hospice workers and nurses dedicated to life, the end-of-life industry has also been invaded by "right-to-die" activists.
"WHO LIVES, WHO DIES?" exposes the perverse state of "medical ethics" – where some of the top ethicists espouse some of the most unethical views imaginable. It documents the dangers of "advance directives" or "living wills." And it exposes the scandalous classification of food and water provided by a feeding tube as "medical treatment" – thereby justifying the denial of basic sustenance to patients who had intended to forego "extraordinary measures" like heart-lung machines, but not be denied food.
Highlights of "WHO LIVES, WHO DIES?" include:
* "Our political vegetative state" by Joseph Farah
* "America's quiet holocaust" by Sarah Foster, which reveals that since long before Terri Schiavo, the disabled and elderly have been starved to death
* "Hospice whistleblower warns elderly," a chilling interview with hospice expert Ron Panzer
* "Diary of a nurse," a poignant first-person account by registered nurse Christina Brundage of how hospice care can hasten death
* "Exposing the 'death is beautiful' movement" by David Kupelian, showing how bizarre New Age beliefs influence the euthanasia/right-to-die camp
* "The real Terri Schiavo story" by Diana Lynne, an in-depth investigative report unveiling frightening contradictions, cruelty and conflicts of interest
* "Schiavo-like woman speaks after 2½ years" – in which the attending physician admits, "I have never seen this happen in my career"
* "At death's door" by Lynn Vincent, exposing the mortal dangers of "futile care"
* "Assisted suicide and 'death with dignity,'" by Rita Marker, an authoritative, concise euthanasia primer, including the surprising origin of the "Living Will"
* "Nazis: Pioneers in medicine" by Patrick Buchanan, showing how America's slide into euthanasia uncomfortably similar to Hitler's early days
* "Compassionate Nazis" by Msgr. James C. Brunner, documenting the step-by-step process whereby killing the disabled led to killing the Jews
* "Human non-person: Terri Schiavo, bioethics and our future" by Wesley J. Smith
* "Never again" – on what can be done to prevent other Terri Schiavos from being starved to death
"Euthanasia – in all its forms – has been off the American public's radar for far too long," said WND Managing Editor David Kupelian. "Terri Schiavo got people's attention, but most still don't realize how pervasive this 'culture of death' has really become – not in the Netherlands, but right her in the U.S. This special edition of Whistleblower finally brings some much-needed light to this life-and-death issue."
Whatever one chooses; nothing looks real good here. . .
In what way does the autopsy show that Michael never abused Terri? Are you going to back up your claim, or keep backing away from it?
"What did you expect for Michael to remain celibate for the rest of his life??"
YES
You might recall the news reports of the man in a coma for 10+ years. He woke up to teenagers and a wife WHO DID NOT LEAVE HIM!!!!
God Bless that wife!!
And why do you suppose that is? Do you think it's a just a question of paperwork? Or do you think it might have something to do with the fact that she's left you and hooked up with someone else?
Um...He was talking about divorce. Namely, that people shouldnt be allowed to divorce for reasons other than adultery (Matthew 19) or death. Terri was dead. One doctor said that if you turned her head side to side you could hear the fluid sloshing around in her head. Besides, youve heard of the "do unto others" rule? I sure as hell wouldnt want to be strapped to a torture machine for 15 yrs.
So his mourning period ended 10 or 11 years before he killed her? And you think that's appropriate?
"oxygen deprivation" CAUSES heart damage resulting in a heart attack. Cardiac arrest is not necessarily caused by such damage. Sounds like you're the one mixing up the medical terms!!
PVS is almost entirely SUBjective.
You're saying he had the right to kill her because he couldn't have conjugal visits with her, and you ask what kind of warped world I live in? ROFL
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