Posted on 03/28/2005 4:16:15 PM PST by bookworm100
PINELLAS PARK — The father of Terri Schiavo on Monday made a desperate, 11th hour appeal for authorities to reconnect a feeding tube to his severely brain-damaged daughter, and said he feared doctors might try to hasten her death.
"I have a grave concern that they'll expedite the process to kill her with an overdose of morphine," Bob Schindler told the press outside the hospice where his 41-year old daughter is a patient.
The current attitude toward doctor-sanctioned involuntary death is that a person must be pretty, pleasant, or prosperous.
Pretty, as in not malformed (will obese people be next?) or one of the “pretty (famous) people.” No one suggested that Christopher Reeves needed to be “put out of his misery.” Other disabled people are fair game if they are a burden on their families. Especially, pretty, as in not brain damaged. Pretty as in “not elderly.” There is an overwhelming belief that a person who has “lived a long life” is ready to “move on.”
Pleasant as in not grumpy, crazy, or weird. Any of these will earn the decision to “put them down”
Prosperous as in rich enough to afford independent care. No one offered to starve Rose Kennedy when she got a feeding tube.
Soon we will become a nation of plastic, youthful, fatuous followers.
"Soon we will become a nation of plastic, youthful, fatuous followers."
it is called 'hellenism' at its best.
What Hitler tried... Judge Greer succeeded. Euthanasia for the less than perfect Aryan.
Then they'll say they are reasoned and civilized.
Freepers have a large contingent of death_heads.
Terri Schaivo will have been starved to death very soon.
We ought not starve people to death to end their lives. This is symbolic of the most serious issue facing our nation.
Are we set apart or not?
If not, our efforts in Iraq and anywhere else are ultimately wasted.
A disabled woman, not otherwise dying, is being starved to death rigtht now, right this minute. Her mother and father are forbidden from helping her in any way. I am having a lot of trouble with this.
"I have a grave concern that they'll expedite the process to kill her with an overdose of morphine," Bob Schindler told the press outside the hospice where his 41-year old daughter is a patient."
They did this to my dh's grandfather, simply because they knew they weren't allowed to starve him to death (1993 in Long Island, NY). The doctors in the hospital OD'd him on morphine, so he had no idea who his family was, and we couldn't comfort him when he needed it. The family refused a feeding tube, only because he was unable to take in any solids or liquids at all (from the morphine OD). He died within two days of the OD. Sad and sickening, and I hope they pay for what they've done to these patients. BTW: my dh's grandfather was in his final stages of lymph node, liver, pancreatic, stomach, and kidney cancer. The doctors literally made his cancer spread, by trying to operate without permission.
You, and millions of others, and rightly so!!!!
Already been done...
REMINDS ME OF THE 2ND GRADE STORY I READ IN GRADE SCHOOL. IT WAS ABOUT AN OLD INDIAN SQUAW WHO WAS A BURDEN ON THE FAMILY UNIT. SHE KNEW THAT OTHER MEMBERS HAD TO TAKE CARE OF HER AND THIS WAS NOT RIGHT. DURING A SEVERE SNOW STORY THE OLD INDIAN SQUAW WALKING OUT INTO THE BLIZZARD NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN. THE TEACHER ASK ME WHAT THAT MET? I HAD NO GOOD ANSWER AS YOUNG LIBERAL STUDENT. TODAY AS A OLDER MATURE CONSERVATIVE ADULT UNDERSTAND. WHEN WE ARE NO LONGER A BLESSING AND ADDING VALUE TO OUR SOCIETY IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON TO A HIGHER LEVEL OF LIVING IN PEACE.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1371413/posts?page=10#10
The nonchalance to this gruesome situation is startling. I cannot believe some of the callous comments I've read here -- and not just by newbie trolls, either.
Speaking of newbie trolls...
I don't usually say things like this, but "drop dead you piece of ..."
Thanks for the heads up, workerbee. I've put quite a bit of thought into this "situation", if that is at all an appropriate way to refer to murder by judge and I've come down where I think it is right to be. I won't attack other FReepers, but a brand new sign up...we'll that's the nastiest thing I'm ever likely to say. I hope I didn't cross the line. Or maybe I don't.
Terri was not only denied therapy for the last 15 years she has been practically put away in a closet. MS has been waiting for her to die and the poor girl just would not cooperate. How could there be any progress under those terms?
Even if she did get therapy and did not get better she is still a human being and deserving of real dignity - not death with dignity which is an oxymoron.
Maybe the courts did their job and this is the right thing in their eyes but in the eyes of humanity it has been a grave injustice.
And another thing I don't know what video you saw but I have never seen one with her drooling on herself.
Terri's will is not known. It is speculation. Her husband says one thing and everyone else says the opposite.
I think when you are talking about an agenda, you must be talking about your own. I don't consider valuing one human life an agenda.
She is not brain dead. Brain dead and brain damaged are distinctly different conditions. All your childish insults won't change that.
My apologies for insulting you. After 15-years there has been ZERO progress.
The question is not whether there can be "progress", i.e., this notion that you can get closer to being "like us." The issue is whether she is a living human being who can live without artificial means. Feeding doesn't qualify. All these hopeless optimists like yourself see a 15-second video clip on the news where she drools over herself while looking at a balloon and you think you know what's best for her.
Nonsense. I don't care about any videos. It does appear that she has people who care about and will care for her. A living human being. Fact is that the courts are simply upholding the law.
If you are a lawyer, I'll discuss the legal aspects of the case with you. Otherwise, I won't waste my time. Justice and the law are on Terri's side and they are allowing her to die with diginity...
Justice and the law are not the same thing. Not by a long shot. She is not being "allowed to die" which she wasn't doing. She is being killed. If you were not allowed nutrition for a sufficient period of time, you would die. Unfortunately people like you are arrogant enough to want to impose your will on the poor girl and make her suffer another 30-40 years in order to push some stupid agenda of yours.
Suffer what? Being alive? I don't have an agenda, other than the belief that it is wrong to kill people who are viewed by some as a burden. This approach was taken in the past and civilized people will not accept it.
Fact is that all of this energy could be better directed at saving someone who actually has hopes of recovery.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ That is exactly the answer the Progressives want you to have. After all, she's expendable. She can't cook. She can't clean house. She can't have sex. She's not worth keeping alive.
That attitude will be the undoing of a once Great Nation. If we have no compassion for others less fortunate than ourselves, we have lost our heart. And once the heart dies, the Nation dies.
And don't for one second believe Jeb Bush when he says his "hands are tied" because they are NOT. There is enough evidence faxed or emailed to him that could easily be used to put an end to this MURDER of an innocent disabled woman.
Mark my words, America, the United States of America, is on its way to becoming a Third World Nation. The Nations who looked to us when 9-11 occurred are looking at us now. What they saw THEN, is not the same Nation they see NOW. The United States is losing its moral compass. And we all know what happens when a ship loses its compass.
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