Posted on 09/04/2003 12:14:25 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
What do you call a country that sentences its prisoners to death by starvation and dehydration?
Barbaric, inhumane perhaps?
Fasts, even hunger strikes, often are self-imposed for periods of time. However, no one in his right mind passes up fluids.
Death by dehydration is a painful, agonizing and arduous process that takes 10 to 14 days.
In addition to feeling the pangs of hunger and thirst, the skin, lips and tongue crack. The nose bleeds because of the drying of the mucus membranes. Heaving and vomiting may ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. The victim may experience seizures.
As the fluid level in the body goes down, the blood pressure goes down and the heart rate goes up. Respiration often increases as blood is shunted from the periphery to the central part of the body in a desperate attempt to sustain the primary organs. The hands and feet become extremely cold.
Compared to starvation and dehydration, death by hanging, firing squad, even the electric chair seems humane.
What kind of country imposes such a death, even on those guilty of the most heinous crimes?
Look in the mirror! We the people of the United States of America now are guilty of allowing this kind of death sentence to be carried out – not against murders, rapists and child molesters, but on some of the most disabled in our midst.
One week from today, on Sept. 11, 2003, as we observe the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 innocent people in New York and Washington, D.C., a circuit judge in Florida will hold a hearing to decide when to remove the tube that is used to bring food and fluid to 39-year-old Terri Schiavo, who is slated to become the latest death-by-dehydration victim.
We call those people, who programmed and sent the terrorists into our country, barbarians. However, if we stand by and allow the state to kill an innocent woman like Terri Schiavo, whose only crime is being severely disabled, are we any better?
Terri is not on a respirator or any artificial life-support equipment. Any reasonable person who sees this woman reacting to her parents will realize she is not in a coma or, as it is sometimes called, a "persistent vegetative state." You can view the evidence for yourself.
In 1990, Terri Schiavo collapsed and suffered brain damage under unexplained circumstances. Having no durable power of attorney for health care, her husband, Michael Schiavo, became her guardian. He filed a malpractice lawsuit against the doctors who attended her and was awarded $1.3 million.
The bulk of the award was placed in a trust fund for her care and rehabilitation. However, in the last 10 years, she has received no meaningful rehabilitation treatment. Instead, her guardian husband hired a right-to-die advocate, George Felos, as his lawyer and began petitioning the courts to have her feeding tube removed, which, of course, will kill her.
Would a jury have set aside this money for her care if it had known that her guardian had planned to ask the court to end her life? Of course not!
Does the fact that Michael Schiavo would inherit any money left in her trust or is living with another woman – with whom he has had a child and plans to marry once Terri is out of the way – a conflict of interest? You bet it is!
Recently, Terri developed a serious infection, but Michael Schiavo refuses to allow doctors to treat her.
If a child is mistreated or denied proper care or medical treatment by a parent or guardian, the state will step in and place that child in the hands of someone who will protect the child from harm. Why should a disabled person be denied this protection?
Have we, as a nation, become so callous that we have bought into the "quality of life" argument that some people simply are not worth the effort to protect or rehabilitate?
Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, wrote a letter to the judge in charge of the case asking him to delay the removal of Terri's feeding tube – stay her execution – until her case could be investigated. He was ignored.
What Gov. Bush should do is have his attorney general bring an action by the state on Terri's behalf.
There has been a federal court hearing, but time is running out.
To date 27,000 people have petitioned Gov. Bush to save Terri Schiavo. That leaves 281,395,000 who should.
sounds criminal to me..
My great aunt and uncle carried for their only child (born around 1930) for 40 yrs. They had to fight the docs (who said at best she'd have 20 yrs) to keep her out of an institution and they cared for her at home.
She never walked or even sat up under her own power, a few years before her death my aunt swears she said momma, she never controled her own body in any way beyond sounds and limited facial expressions. She did have a sense of taste and had a great reaction to grasshopper pie or the sensation of one of her beautiful velvet dresses!
I am blessed to have witnessed their love and devotion to their child. My aunt will be turning 95 soon and she still misses her daughter terribly... I get goosebumps hearing her speak of her. Her life had value! And quality!
My heart goes out to these parents.
Are you a medical doctor? Did you examine Terri?
Providing good and hydration has not been considered life support in the past. If they were considered "life support," anyone who couldn't feed himself could be allowed to starve.
I meant "providing food and hydration," but having anyone provide "good" to Terri is a great idea, anyway.
I can't watch any of the video on this dinosaur computer of mine,so I can't judge her reactions for myself, yet from what I've read it seems there's something there and Hubby just seems fishy to me.
The only thing that makes sense to me, is that there is a reason that Michael Schiavo desperately (and he does seem desperate)wants his wife dead, is that perhaps if she gets better and talks about what happened, Michael could be in deep sh*t. The bone scan findings, plus the condition her neck is in, suggests something besides natural causes or a freak accident. I wonder if they had stairs in their home?
Yup. See the numerous Hill (abortion clinic murderer) threads.
So, you think it's okay for him to kill people?
Who is "him?"
No.
A statement so broad in scope that it is undefendable.
How true. Derek Humphry, founder of the Hemlock Society, helped kill his own wife who was stricken with cancer.
As far as I know, he hasn't practiced what he preaches on himself though he must be quite aged by now.
Humphry is one of many socially prominent atheists who was 'converted' by Darwin:
Immediately [when] I read Darwin's "The Origin of Species" I lost my religious faith (Protestant). It seemed to negate the very roots of the biblical teaching. --Derek Humphry
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