it seems so many have come to the wrong conclusion about the interference of government and the following of the law in the terri shiavo case.
the courts and government intervention has literally turned things so far out of context that people are fighting for the wrong reasons when they believe they are fighting for the right side.
confused? we all seem to be. let's look at it simply. terri shiavo is a vegetable. unable to feed herself. but able to be feed and kept alive, like so many houseplants by people who wish to do that.
who is it that says the government should prevent such an act as an act against the constitutional rights of terri to be allowed to die. a right to die is not constitutional.
there is no legal declaration from terri denouncing being kept alive by her parents. no written statement, just the word of someone who will benefit from her passing.
who should the law protect? everyone. including the helpless who are subjected to the whims of a majority that seem to project their desires of not living in a state such as this onto someone who has not declared such.
the law and government and the majority should never be allowed to do such, and when it does, we get what occurred in nazi germany, yes, that those who are not worthy deserve to die to end their suffering.
but terri shiavo is said not to be suffering and feels nothing, yet she shouldn't be forced to live in such a state because it is not what she would want. if she doesn't feel anything, what harm is there in letting her parents care for her.
that is the argument against government and the courts intervening. not that terri shiavo's unexpressed wishes are not being carried out, but that the wishes of her parents to care for their daughter is being prevented by a calous court bent on projecting their interpretation of law onto helpless beings.
mhking, you are far from right on this issue and your lack of consistancy in the rights of the individual over the power of the state is surprisingly frightening as to which side you are on.
teeman8r
Good job Mike ~ thanks!
God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, & wisdom to know the difference.
What's wrong with being allowed to go home with our parents before we are sent home to Jesus?
I have to agree! Jesus is waiting. What I fight is... Telling Michael Schivo to burn in hell and saying things like "Lord don't let him ever repent". Then I have to ask forgiveness and ask the Lord to save his soul.
He will pay for his evil. Now or before the Lord. I hope it's now... there I go again: Lord forgive me.
Lord Bless and Keep you in His loving arms Terri!
Uggghhh.
This is such a hard matter.. Ugly, ugly situation..
I think Terri is aware in there, and she has now been starved for several days.
So much time has passed, I truly think it would be cruel to re-insert the tube.
After all, we have no way of knowing if it won't get pulled again in six months or a year..
And this isn't the first time that tube has been pulled.
How many times does she get put through this?
I personally feel that if she is going to be killed, it would be kinder to do a masive dose of morphine to her heart and end it quickly, but of course, while some folks are willing to kill her out-right, none of them has the balls to do THAT.
If you're going to commit murder, then do it like Lady MacBeth.
"Tis best done quickly. "
doesn't make the whole thing less evil, but there is less suffering.
Your heartfelt expression is appreciated.
But I must disagree with your thought. You place "quality of life" above life itself, which is a very dangerous position from which to begin.
Secondly, you defend proceduralism through the "nation of laws" quotation, regardless of consequence. Would you then defend the traffic cop who arrests me for speeding because I was taking you to a hospital after your heart attack? That's proceduralism, MH.
There are natural laws, and there are positive laws. The positive laws in a Judaeo-Christian society cannot supplant the natural laws.
Good post!
Some good may come out of it, though. It's raised the awareness of Americans to what can happen when it's not definitive what your wishes might be when you're unable to communicate.
I've been asked to come to a local hospital next week to explain living wills to hospital employees and how the process works in Texas. I'm not there to influence what their wishes will be, but merely to help them make sure that they express them completely and effectively.
And that's a good thing.
Thanks for the thoughtful piece.
She should go home to god, she shouldnt have to suffer on the way. the aclu wants executions stoped because of the supposed pain they suffer for the 5 minutes they are getting the chemicals injected but we let terri linger for 2 weeks? thats bull$h!t. if your going to kill her, just get it over with, send her on to god. Im thinking along the lines of deadwood season 1 where the preacher is diein in horrid pain and the doctor is on his knees praying that god takes him on to heaven and to end his suffering and at the exact same time Al finishes him off with as much respect as he can (since his brother suffered the same fate).
Excellent post, Michael, and I commend you wholeheartedly for it. I only have one small disagreement with the above sentence. Those who want to ignore the rule of law are not "those in power" who "didn't get their way." Rather, the people who want to keep Terri Schiavo nominally alive at all costs are those who want to ignore the rule of law.
To peach, Howlin, onyx, and trinity, the Neil Boortz quote mhking included in his post is interesting to me, because it askes precisely the same questions I did yesterday in several ways, on several threads. I'm glad someone else has similar insights and, in Boortz' case, a radio forum to share them with a wide audience.
As I've also said a number of times, the Schiavo case is not unique. This morning, Geraldine Ferraro said on FOX News that there are some 30,000 to 35,000 people in the U.S. currently in a similar or identical state. The only difference between them is the epic family feud in the Schiavo case.
If all the people whose passions have been inflamed by the Schiavo case would look to the larger issues highlighted by the case, they might eventually make her inevitable death meaningful. We need a national policy -- national legislation -- to govern how these cases should be handled.
For example, in the landmark Karen Ann Quinlan case, the Supreme Court initially denied her parents' request to remove her life support on the grounds they could not prove that would have been her wishes. Later, the parents were able to prove that in the Missouri courts, and her life support was removed. I don't know what proof the parents were able to provide the Missouri courts.
If there were national legislation which says, among other things, that there must be a written or videotaped declaration from the person before life support (including feeding tubes) can be withdrawn, then the Schiavo case would never have gone as far as it has.
This is the way to turn what is a private family tragedy that's become far too public -- and almost way out of hand -- into a meaningful and constructive historical event.
Jesus is waiting for ALL the mentally handicapped, late stage Elohim's, dementia people on earth....
SO, lets just kill them all now so they reach Jesus faster!!!
This thread is a good illustration of the "slippery slope"
Reminds me of a story I once heard.
A kid came home from school and didn't see that the mom had invited the preacher over for dinner.
The kid said, "Mom, you won't believe what I did today. I saw this snake on the ground, and I stomped him and stomped him and stomped him and stomped him..." then he saw the preacher "and then the Lord took him home."
"Constitutional protections and freedoms wrought by the notion of ignoring the rule of law..."
The phrase 'an unjust law is no law at all' has been carried out from the foundation of our Country all the way through Martin Luther King, Jr. By your thinking our freedoms should have been do away with years ago.
Men standing up to bad laws is what gave us our freedom in the first place. Should we just stop? When the code is out of harmony with the moral law civil disobeidence should be established.
An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. Paraphrased from Aquinas.
All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Paraphrased from Buber.
If Terri is saved, Jesus is already with her. No need to starve her to death to send her to Him.
It is not for anyone else to decide when someone should "let her go." That is up to God.
The Lord is calling her Home. To a place where she will be whole again. God bless her.
But we do not need to make her last few hours on this plane of existence such painful ones.
Death by dehydration is extremely painful and needless.
We don't even put stray dogs ...or the worst death-row inmate for that matter..to death in such a meaningless and cruel way.
At least give her the needle...the same as you would any stray dog.
redrock
Jesus is waiting for all of us with open arms. Pushing someone into his arms by ending their life unjustly is still MURDER - no matter how one dissembles and attempts to redefine terms in order to make themselves feel better about it. Fatigue is no excuse. Pilate could have done the right thing at any time - had the authority to act and would not. He let
Jesus die unjustly rather than stand up for what's right. Instead of doing what's right and taking the heat, he bowed out and abrogated his responsibility to the mob. In this case it's to the courts. The courts have lost all sense of justice. And the Governor of Florida is asking unjust courts for direction. That's like asking a blind man what color the light at the intersection is.
Bush needs to stop asking the courts if he can do his job and simply do his job!!!!!!!!!!