Posted on 06/13/2014 6:08:09 AM PDT by wagglebee
A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge reversed his own ruling, permitting Casey Kasem’s daughter, Kerri Kasem, to remove her father’s food and hydration (via feeding tube), which will result in his death by starvation and dehydration. Kasem’s wife of 33 years, Jean Kasem, is fighting for the life of her husband, with her attorney, Steve Haney, calling the judge’s decision, “the functional equivalent of a death sentence.”
Growing up in the 70’s, I was introduced to Casey Kasem’s easy to recognize voice as each week he counted down “American Top 40″ hits for almost four decades on a radio show heard around the world. Kasem was also the voice of the character Shaggy on “Scooby-Doo” cartoons for 40 years.
According to reports, Kasem is stricken with dementia and Parkinson’s; typically, treatable conditions. Once Kasem begins the process of dying by having his food and water removed, he will endure a death that no family member should ever have to witness. It is cruel and barbaric and could take days, and often weeks to play itself out, torturing not only the patient, but those who love him as well.In stark contrast, St. John Paul II who also had Parkinson’s, was afforded a feeding tube as part of his end of life care, and subsequently died naturally.
I watched my own sister, Terri Schiavo, anguish through almost two weeks without food or water and there are no words that can properly describe the inhumanity. In her last days, we would not permit our mother to visit Terri, in an effort to spare her additional torment, as blood pooled in Terri’s eyes, and her skin and lips were terribly cracked because her tissues were lacking any moisture. Terri’s body turned different colors of blue and yellow and her breathing became so rapid, it was as if she was outside sprinting. I could go on.
Indeed, the disagreement between Kasem’s family also raises the issue of the dangers of health care initiatives. It places the interpretations into the hands of “quality of life” minded family members, healthcare professionals, hospital boards and ethics committees, not to mention some Judges who have no regard for the dignity of human life.
Make no mistake about it, countless conscious and unconscious persons die by deliberate starvation and dehydration every year. Typically, we only hear of the cases in which there is a family disagreement or in cases where there is a celebrity involved. And with an accepting culture, laws that permit this behavior, and a government controlling our health care system under the guise of “compliance”, this scenario will become more common and the pre-mature death of our medically vulnerable loved ones will increase significantly.
We live in a very troubled and an increasingly dangerous America. Our culture has lost sight of God’s supreme right over when life begins and when it ends, and has “turned on its head” the true meaning and value of suffering and compassion.Those of us who wish to defend life in all stages, especially for the most vulnerable, are demonized when we ask the obvious question: where is the humanity in deliberately denying someone’s most basic rights – food and water? Tragically, what was once considered barbaric has now become part of everyday life.
Many of us realized when Terri was murdered that the media circus was nothing more than a "dress rehearsal" to determine how to best push euthanasia and death panels.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
![](http://i47.tinypic.com/15mn2hx.jpg";;)
“Bobby Schindler has written an excellent editorial about the ongoing murder of Casey Kasem.”
link?
When my grandmother was still able to reason she made out a living will specifying that she not be kept alive fed by tubes for more than a week or two and that my mother get power of attorney when she could no longer make decisions.
In her early 90s she went to the hospital for a second stroke and after that it was obvious that she could and would no longer make decisions for herself.
She died in her home about 9 years later.
Even though this guy was a devout lefty, my heart goes out to him as the pro-death crowd swarms over his body.
Didn't know that.
There are a huge number of deliberately obtuse or deliberately lying posters here who present this issue in a purposely false light.
They will only keep saying, a dying body can’t process nutrients, take liquid etc...
When that is not controversial.
What happens often is that nutrients are withheld from patients with age related neurological degeneration much before their bodies are dying to achieve a euthanasia.
The Kasem case is a horrible example of courts usurping Doctor’s authority to practice medicine.
The comments of the pro-euthanasia posters are quite insulting of Kasem’s Doctors.
It is a preview of what to expect under government health care as well I would think.
Lethal injection, firing squad, or hanging would actually be MORE humane than this. I wonder if Casem’s daughter would be willing to be the executioner, since she’s so keen on his dying as soon as possible.
I supported the daughter over the wife at first, but since the first thing the daughter did when she had legal authority was sentence her father to die, I now see why Jean fought so hard to keep her husband away from his kids.
According to an article posted here on FR a few days back he was being drowned by the feeding.
Now they stopped the drowning.
So what’s it going to be, death by drowning, or by dehydration?
Politically, drowning is preferred by me, that way we don’t have to have these threads about starvation.
Drown him and he goes quietly.
If he spelled out his desire to have no tube feedings then that should be honored. Don’t know if he did that though. If he didn’t then it’s a court fight to decide who makes the decision.
I had the same reaction.
Now I've got to believe the wife when she says the children want to kill him to get the house and their share of his estate. This is tragic.
Yes, and I'm sorry to say we were right. This has become routine.
Agreed, it all makes sense now. IO thought the wife was being a total Beyotch, turns out she was trying to save his life.
We love you Casey ... sleep in peace.
Yeah.
First it was about bed sores, poor treatment.
No complaints about the nutrient tube to the stomach that fed him for a long time. No claims it was futile.
As soon as she got the court to usurp Kasem’s doctor’s rights, the issue changed to, he is dying. Feeding tube won’t help.
It was bait and switch.
That's the way the death mongers ALWAYS play it.
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.