New UN Convention Forbids Withdrawal of Food or Fluids from Disabled like Terri Schiavo

LifeSiteNews ^ | 12/15/06 | John-Henry Westen

[wagglebee]

UNITED NATIONS, December 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The newly approved United Nations "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" which was adopted by the General Assembly Wednesday forbids nations which sign on to it from denying "food and fluids" to disabled persons.

Article 25 of the Convention, which deals with health, directs (in sub-section f) nations to "Prevent discriminatory denial of health care or health services or food and fluids on the basis of disability."

Commenting on the development, Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition told LifeSiteNews.com that "To cause death by dehydration by denying food and fluids to a person based on their disability or cognitive ability, such as Terri Schiavo, is to kill them by euthanasia."

In March 2005 Schivo died of dehydration and starvation after being intentionally denied food and fluids for 13 days.  Autopsy results revealed she could have lived at least another ten years if she had continued to receive food and fluids.

Schadenberg said the section was "the most important" of the Convention "because if it is recognized it will act by protecting people with disabilities, who are not otherwise dying, from being killed by dehydration."  Schadenberg noted that such deaths are a form of euthanasia. 

"To kill a person by dehydration is the ultimate affront to the equality and dignity of the human person who is so devalued that they are even denied the most basic necessity, food and fluid," he said.

"Quality of life concerns can never justify euthanasia of persons with disabilities, whether by action or omission," he explained.  "These deaths are often motivated by eugenic and economic considerations and they are sold to the general public based on a philosophy of end-of-life choice."

Concluding, Schadenberg said, "Article 25 (f) must be heeded by all governments as a way of ensuring true equality and freedom for all people with disabilities, especially the cognitively disabled."

See the full Convention online:
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahcfinalrepe.htm

See related coverage:
Vatican Refuses to Sign UN Disabilities Rights Treaty over Pro-Abortion Language
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/dec/06121406.html

[wagglebee]

I guess every half century or so, the UN does something right.

[wagglebee]

Pro-Life Ping

[wagglebee]

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The UN seems to have done something right.

[FlingWingFlyer]

That giant swooshin' sound you just heard was Pelosi and her Commie 'RATS gettin' outta Dodge. Their party of death isn't going to want any part of this.

[wagglebee]

Ping

[ElkGroveDan]

Give it a minute or two. The "nobody's business" crowd of Freepers will be along any minute now.

[wagglebee]

Are they willing to go two weeks with no food or water?

[InvincibleMoon]

i was about to say the same thing.
its a shame it was to late to save Terri.
i just hope we NEVER see something like that
happen ever again.

[EternalVigilance]

Remarkably, the Florida Constitution, in Article One, Section Two, provides the same protection. Too bad that it was ignored in the case of Terry Schiavo:

Basic rights.--All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty, to pursue happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and to acquire, possess and protect property; except that the ownership, inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship may be regulated or prohibited by law. No person shall be deprived of any right because of race, religion, national origin, or physical disability.

[dforest]

This is unbelievable. I don't know that it is believable. Why, I have so much trouble thinking why this gift from them?

[ElkGroveDan]

Are they willing to go two weeks with no food or water?

Don't know. But I suspect that as with the shrill abortion crowd, most of them have probably done in their own parent or grandparent, so watching someone else do it, provides psychological comfort to these very troubled persons.

[wagglebee]

When Terri was being murdered I read every pertinent section of the Florida Constitution, there were any number of ways her killing could have been stopped.

[wagglebee]

It wouldn't surprise me if you were right.

[edcoil]

The UN never does anything right. Check the fine print. Corrupt evil men control it.

[TAdams8591]

Absolutely amazing. The U.S. gets it wrong and the U.N. gets it right.

Maybe some good has come from the horrible evil perpetrated upon Terri Shindler after all.

[processing please hold]

its a shame it was to late to save Terri.

Amen.

The Terri threads were so divisive on FR. How I remember them.

[shrinkermd]

Yes, this is a step forward. We were labeled as right wing, Christian nuts to oppose mercy killing. Especially, killing by withholding water. A painful death that usually takes about two weeks.

This has been a problem for conservatives all along. We allow the issue to be categorized as "religious" when it is actually based on cultural values that cut across religions and secularists alike.

Several generations of mass media have portrayed particularly Evangelicals as "Elmer Gantrys" and worse. We need all the allies we can find to restore human rights and dignity to those who cannot stand up for themselves. The UN, for all its probems, can be such an ally.

[mrsmith]

It doesn't matter that it can be read to protect such people, there is some way to interpret it so it doesn't- and that is how the UN intends it to be read.

They are evil through and through.

[DejaJude]

But what was the UN position on force feeding detainees at Gitmo on hunger strikes?

[esquirette]

"We have for review In re Guardianship of Browning, 543 So. 2d 258 (Fla. 2dDCA 1989), in which the district court certified the following question as one ofgreat public importance:

Whether the guardian of a patient who is incompetent but not in a permanent vegetative state and who suffers from an incurable, but not terminal condition, may exercise the patient's right of self-determinationto forego sustenance provided artificially by a nasogastric tube?

We answer the question in the affirmative as qualified in this opinion." In re guardianship of Estelle Browning, 568 So.2d 4 (Fla. 1990).

We have been in trouble for a long time. Florida allows other people to kill you, and you do not have to be on the skids yet either. Watch for more pro-death arguments in terms of 'public interest' and 'limited resources' as the boomers age. . . . Heck, I wouldn't be surprised to see an eminent domain case against the aged arguing we need to give up our air when we get too old.