I did ask them if I can repost it. They turned me down. I then asked why and why the apparent double standard when articles written by leftists like Michael Moore, Maureen Dowd and Ted Kennedy are found here every week without getting censored. I didn't even get a reply.
I used to be very proud of Free Republic. In the four years I've been a member; not once have I seen dissenting opinions censored. FWIW, here's my article:
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LET TERRI DIE AND RETURN TO GOD
A huge outcry has been raised concerning the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Why the emotion over a common medical practice of stopping artificial treatment when there is no hope of recovery?
Terri has been kept artificially alive for more than fifteen years despite being in a “persistent vegetative state.” What exactly does this mean?
"People in [this] state cannot think, speak or respond to commands and are not aware of their surroundings. They may have noncognitive functions and breathing and circulation may remain relatively intact." (National Institute of Health)
Terri is kept alive by having a feeding tube inserted into her stomach. She has no chance of recovery. If it wasn’t for modern medicine, she would've died within several days of her heart failure.
What exactly is the difference of her and those who are kept alive by ventilators but are also impossible to restore?
When my wife was dying from cervical cancer several years ago, I signed a "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" form. I didn't want to see the woman I loved, the mother of my three young sons, my mate of ten years and eternal companion, suffer more than she had. Seeing her go through three years of pain was more than I could bear.
When she slipped into a coma, we knew the end was near. When she stopped breathing, I was holding her hand, whispering "Go towards the light." And "I will love you forever."
Her sisters were frantic and wanted her to be resuscitated and kept alive for as long as possible on the machines. I put my foot down and said no and informed them I signed a "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" form. As a result, my wife was finally at rest and no longer suffering.
To this day my in-laws still harbor anger towards me and still haven't stopped grieving for my late wife.
Terri's family wants to believe she will recover. They are portraying her husband as being evil for wanting to put an end to the horrible spectacle of artificially keeping this poor woman alive in a permanent vegetative state.
When people are in a situation where it is impossible for them to recover, it is an obscenity to perpetuate life when the only decent thing is to let our loved one go. It is unfortunate cryonics is still considered an outlandish procedure. Those cases that hold hope of a future medical cure should just be cryogenically preserved. I know I would prefer to be cryogenically frozen if I was placed in a similar situation. Nanomedicine a century or two from now shouldn’t have any problem repairing cellular damage from the freezing process and revive those frozen, regardless of their illness.
We humans are designed to eventually DIE. Everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die. How long must this poor woman be kept artificially alive before she is allowed to move on to the next life? Isn’t fifteen years enough?
Her doctors aren’t evil. Neither is her husband. He loves her and wants her to finally be at peace. Living as a vegetable is no way for humans to live.
It is helpful to examine the different situations where artificial treatment is given in cases of medical incapacity:
• Cessation of brain and heart and/or other organ activity
• Cessation of brain activity
• Cessation of cognitive brain activity
• Cessation of heart or other organ activity
Cessation of brain and heart
Must one continually perform CPR upon a person who has drowned? How long must it be performed before one discontinues artificial treatment and face facts the patient will never recover? What if the victim's parents insist CPR be continued non-stop for days on end? One has to face facts artificial treatment may only work within a very small window of opportunity in cases of brain-death and heart stoppage.
Cessation of brain activity
What about in cases of brain-death and the person is only kept alive by machines? If the patient’s brain has ceased to function and the patient is incapable of breathing on his own; the person’s chances of recovery are nonexistent.
Cessation of cognitive brain activity
People in permanent comas lose their cognitive ability. They are incapable of thinking, waking up or communicating. Most doctors agree if these patients haven’t recovered after a year; they will never recover. However, everyone has heard stories about people waking up from comas after 10 years, giving the faint hope that our loved one will also recover some day. However for every one that does recover, thousands don’t and most die a slow death.
Cessation of heart or other organ activity
Modern medicine has machines that can keep a person alive for quite some time if they lose the use of a certain organ, such as kidneys or heart. It isn’t a permanent solution though and the person will need their defective organ repaired or replaced.
Final thoughts
Terri Schiavo suffered permanent brain damage from heart failure. This damage was so severe that she is incapable of cognitive thought. Her brain still works to a limited extent - the involuntary systems such as her respiratory and circulatory systems are still functioning. But Terri, the person, the personality, is not longer there. It’s as if the portions of her brain that stored her person, her memories, her thoughts and her personality were removed. It’s as if her spirit is no longer in her body. The only thing her brain does is keep her physical body alive – it has become nothing more than a hospital respirator or heart-lung machine.
I know it’s heartbreaking for most to see her. She sleeps and awakes, her eyes open and she moves from side to side. But according to all the independent and court-appointed observers, some of whom spent several months by her side, her eyes don’t focus. There’s never been any hint she recognizes anyone or anything. She doesn’t respond to speech or touch. All the remains is involuntary and noncognitive. Those most familiar with her specific case such as medical doctors and courts have all agreed with this assessment. This is why her husband has won every single case against her parents. It isn’t a conspiracy; the facts are obvious when examined honestly.
Fifteen years is long enough. I know what her husband is going through. He wants his wife to rest and stop being the vegetable laying in bed. He was a faithful husband for many years and placed great demands on his time and those caring for Terri for at least eight years before recognizing the hopelessness and decided to end the horror. I don’t think I could’ve lasted that long with the constant pain of seeing my wife in such a condition. At least he had the sense to move on, find another and raise a family while her parents still cling to a miracle of recovery.
We need to face facts. Sometimes God’s answer is no regardless of how fervently we want otherwise. Let us all let her go so she may enjoy her rest with the Lord.
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Good article. If any of these four situations actually applied in this case, maybe more would be supporting the "removal of artificial life support".
However, Terri Schiavo does not fit any of these. And frankly, the loving husband schtick just doesn't fly, what with the new wife-to-be and kiddies.
He has to kill her as opposed to divorce her? Yikes!
I'll say it again. Starving an animal to death is a FELONY? But we can starve this disabled person? Sickening.
If you believed in God, then you would know He takes whomever He chooses at the time He chooses. As long as she's alive, He means for her to stay alive. Somehow I don't think you'd appreciate other people deciding when they think God wants to take you.