Posted on 02/01/2006 7:29:10 AM PST by Ohioan from Florida
Why do you ask?
BTW, have you ever undergone dehydration and starvation for more than 5 days?
If you have, please tell me about it.
MSNBC removed the video quickly! I thought the video would be available all day.
What a set up!
You are most certainly entitled to your opinion. If you see the gift of life as selfish, then so be it. However, I find your idea of selfishness to be absurd.
I am absolutely certain the Schindlers didn't view caring for Terri and loving her as a burden. That should have been obvious to even you, Hildy. If they say it wasn't a burden, then would Terri have been selfish for wanting to live in her condition?
Is an infant selfish for wanting to live?
Is Haleigh selfish for wanting to live?
Is President Ford selfish for wanting to live?
Are tsunami survivors selfish for wanting to live?
Just think for a minute how ridiculous it is to say that someone is selfish for wanting to live, to be kept alive, by being cared for and loved. The desire to be loved and cared for is a basic human need, Hildy, even for you!!
If you are so hip on the idea of being unselfish, then why are you still alive? Why haven't you committed suicide? If you follow your logic, Hildy, then you yourself are being selfish!
For the record, I really don't believe that you're selfish for wanting to be loved and cared about, Hildy. Please don't off yourself. It wouldn't make me feel any better about you. Quite the opposite, actually. I would feel badly if you committed suicide.
Dr. Lifton interviewed many of the surviving doctors who participated in the Holocaust. It's amazing how ordinary they were, and how much they were like eugenicists in the US today.
They viewed their society as the patient, and disabled people as the disease. Any good doctor would amputate a limb if the patient's life depended on it. As far as they were concerned, that's what they were doing. Amputating the disabled people, so society could be healthy.
There were exceptions made for those who exhibited extraordinary talent. Their lives were spared, but they were not considered fully human.
It wasn't much of a leap to treat the racial health of society. At that time, racism was socially acceptable. It wasn't whispered about and hinted at, as it is now.
There are people today who share many of the views of the Nazi doctors. They believe that society's health would improve if we exterminated the most unhealthy among us. They believe it's selfish for an unhealthy person to want to live. Some of them believe this so strongly, that they will donate their own loved ones to the extermination program. And they honestly don't know why we find that so appalling.
Great post! I especially liked your last paragraph.
To link suicide to this is a bit of a stretch...but good try.
This isn't about suicide. It's about bioethics. Volunteering to be bioethicked isn't the same as suicide. It's about murder. Only selfish people refuse to submit to the biothic program.
I am in no hurry to see this poor little girl die. I would rather see the step father be put down. I live in the town next door. There is talk among the medical community about her condition--although kept very quiet for fear of HPPA violations and what-not.
The damage done to her was pretty severe. The physical damage precludes any meaningful recovery. Think of a car who's transmission has been disconnected from the engine. The engine still runs, the lights come on. But is is not a functional car.
Do I believe in miracles. Absolutely. Am I advocating removing feeding tubes or water. No.
However, prayer is the only thing that will bring this girl back. It is a shame all around. Death would be too easy for the a-hole that did this to her.
I meant to reply to this post earlier, but I got caught up in others, so please forgive me.
If you find that description, I would definitely be interested in reading it. Please ping me when you find it, as I have no idea what post you are referring to (maybe it was on a thread I wasn't following).
There is no need to get in a fight. These are, for the most part, opinions we all have, and discussion can be healthy for us.
Please explain. I don't find it a stretch at all. I think that viewing someone as selfish because they want to live despite their frailties and disabilities to be utterly absurd.
Sounds like a good book. I'll try to read it.
Perhaps with prayer and a great deal of work at the rehab center where she is now, Haleigh will recover somewhat enough to lead a "normal" life. Even if she doesn't recover completely, I think it would be horrible to remove her feeding tube.
I agree that her stepfather needs to be completely put away. Part of me would like to see him be tortured. I cannot understand why people do such cruel things.
Maybe they are gullibly listening to the impious generalization that is being kept alive in the media. It goes something like this
People who need much help should get "out of the way" of their more robust fellow humansSounds barbaric (no insult meant to barbarians)
There is a huge difference between disabled and clinically dead...and I'm only talking here about clinically dead no chance of recovery. Do you think people's bodies should be kept alive when their brains are dead, no matter what?
I don't think I'm going out on a limb if I say that YOU are the LAST person who will know when a person's soul is gone.
Very mature response. Thank you.
"Yeah, to do what? Tap dance? Do trigonometry? Sing an aria? Win a Nobel Prize? A year to *impress* a hospital employee, or else? People aren't to be treated like dogs that are required to do tricks before the judges or else be killed.
If dogs were treated like that at shows, the judges would be in jail."
EXACTLY. I'll try to find the link and excerpt where I read it and put it in my next post.
You are quite welcome. Glad I could help. :)
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