Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

You be the judge!

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

The slow death of Terri Schiavo is not new. In its most recent incarnation, it began Oct. 15, 2003 by withholding food and water at the order of Florida Circuit Judge George Greer at the request of Schiavo’s husband, Michael. The rest is history.

The legalities of Michael’s “rights” continue to be the media’s topic of choice. But what about the medical “theory” of persistent vegetative state that is being successfully masqueraded as “fact?” Some doctors say Terri's brain damage from her still unexplained, middle of the night “accident” in 1990 causes her to be in this state. They say her eye contact and smiles amount to anomalous behavior that should not be taken as verification of conscious awareness. They say in her condition, starvation would not be cruel because Terri is unaware of the hunger, thirst and pain associated with being starved to death due to her severe brain damage. Maybe the proponents of this position are ethically brain-dead themselves, or maybe they have another agenda. Affidavits and statements from some nurses, therapists and doctors indicate a much different view, including the opinion that Terri could benefit from therapy and eventually be able to talk, feed herself and more. From my own years of working with severely brain-damaged clients, it was blatantly obvious that these living human beings can and do learn and do indeed "feel" thirst and hunger and they do exhibit "emotions" like frowning, whimpering and crying when they are hungry and thirsty. If someone tried to kill them by starvation or dehydration, I assure you they would know it and feel it. Terri Schiavo is no exception.

Decades before the birth of Christ, the Roman orator Cicero, said, “The man who does not know history is destined to remain a child.” And only decades ago, the citizens of pre-World War II Germany, charmed by the charisma of Hitler and economically desperate in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles, stood silent while citizens of their own nation, only a few at first and later by the millions, were murdered. But how could this happen? Passage in July 1934 of the “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Sick Offspring” was one of the moves that set the stage for mass euthanasia. In January of the same year, the enactment of “The Law for Simplification of the Health System” combined with information from health insurance questionnaires created a eugenics profile of the German people. Also in 1934, Nazi spokesman Dr. Friedrich Zahn wrote, "The only value of a man is his economic value, his human labor productivity." He called for the registration of various "risks" that threaten the value of German productivity, such as illness, disability, unemployment and non-accomplishment of occupational goals. Simply put, those citizens were not worthy of life and living, according to what soon became the norm in the medical, legal and governmental communities of 1930s Germany. So the stage was set for the gradual transformation of public opinion that would quickly and willingly lead from mercy killing to euthanasia to genocide. Does any of this sound familiar? I hope you’re reading between the lines!

Just because a government adopts a law that permits a judge to order the death of a mysteriously injured woman at the behest of her “loving” husband, doesn't make it right. The philosophical and "ethical" beliefs that cheapen life, encrypted in the professional language espoused by the disciples of death, promote a worldview that dismisses as outdated and unworthy the morality that has promoted the "sanctity of life" for millennia and the religion that inspired it.

The opening remarks of our Declaration of Independence include the statement, "We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." On another occasion Jefferson stated that, "the care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only object of good government." So much for good government in 21st century America! Sometimes I wonder what the Founding Fathers of this nation would say about the erosion of our rights if they were alive today. I can imagine what Jefferson would say.

As days become decades and seconds turn into centuries, the people of this nation will likely continue to see more of the basic human rights guaranteed in our Bill of Rights slip away with little notice. And as for the medical theories masquerading as “facts” and the real motivation of some of those with the power to transform national consciousness, you be the judge!