Posted on 03/31/2006 6:04:59 AM PST by Nextrush
In recent times, the killing of those who are "in a coma" and a "persistent vegetative state" begins with the 1976 case of Karen Ann Quinlan, who stopped breathing after a drug overdose.
Her family wanted to kill her by removing a respirator and the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed. It was thought that removing the "life support" would result in her death.
As it turned out she lived nine more years until she died of pneumonia in 1985.
The one voice in the mainstream media of the day that didn't want the respirator taken off was wondering how much more life she had in her and whether or not she might come out of the coma.
ABC'S Howard K. Smith commented against the effort to kill her.
(I watched ABC to hear Smith's comments often. Unknown to me at the time, back in 1970 Smith had blasted his colleagues for being too "liberal" in a "TV Guide" interview. Behind his back other members of the media elite dubbed him "Howard K. Agnew" for echoing the criticism of the media by then Vice-President Spiro Agnew.)
Why would Smith not support her "right to die?" In his autobiography you find disdain for religion (his mother's Catholic and father's Fundamentalist faith).
I believe it is because of Smith's experience as a student and later reporter in Nazi Germany. It was there that reporters were leaked details they couldn't report directly from Germany, including treatment of Jews and the euthanasia program that put countless Karen Quinlan's to death.
When CBS reporter William L. Shirer got out of Germany, he wrote in his book "Berlin Diary":
"BERLIN November 25 (1940)
I have at last got to the bottom of these "mercy killings." It's an evil tale.
The Gestapo, with the knowledge and approval of the government, is sytematically putting to death the mentally deficient population of the Reich....
In the end Hitler simply wrote a letter to the secret police administration and the health authorities authorizing the Gnadenstoss (coup de grace) in certain circumstances where persons were proved to be suffering from incurable mental or nervous diseases...
I am also informed that the relatives of the unfortunate victims, when they get the ashes back---they are never given the bodies---receive a stern warning from the secret police not to demand explanations and not to "spread false rumours."...
Paragraph two of the form letter sent to the relatives plainly bears the stamp of this sociological thinking: "In view of the nature of his serious, incurable ailment, his death, which saved him from a lifelong institutional sojourn, is to be regarded merely as a release."....
Its a Nazi, messy business..."
The cremation of the body and the "release" comment ring out all too loudly to those of us who remember the killing of Terri Schiavo. Here is some meat for those who claim the Nazi comparison has no substance.
And then in Missouri in 1990, Nancy Cruzan, injured in a car accident and in a coma, was taken off "life support."
But this time her feeding tube was defined as "life support."
Her parents had gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, that ruled 5-4 that "compelling evidence" would be required to allow the tube to be removed.
Then some of her co-workers stepped forward to claim she "wouldn't want to live that way"
And so she was starved to death for twelve days in 1990. Nineteen people got arrested trying to help her while then Missouri Governor John Ashcroft said there was nothing he could do to save her life.
As a postscript, her father who wanted her to die committed suicide in 1995. Joe Cruzan hanged himself in his carport. A few years later her mother died of cancer.
And so the case of Terri Schiavo, with many questions about how she ended up in her condition in the first place and many questions about what she really would have wanted to happen to her in her condition.
When the feeding tube was removed on March 18th, some politicians were quick to act, but without meaning. The legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President was symbolic and the courts had the final say.
I got a message that politicians were all about pro-life show with no pro-life substance or teeth behind their actions.
In Florida, pro-death legislators blocked action and Governor Jeb Bush would not act against the court. The "rule of law" prevailing with many asking how far can the "rule of law" go. Maybe we can let a Ten Commandments monument be removed from the lobby of a court building in Alabama but does the "rule of law" means that the innocent should die.
And what of Michael Schiavo, who says "I love my wife". To me that is as absurd as the Dutch who euthanize babies like the Nazis saying they aren't like Nazi's because they are "compassionate."
Is Michael just another O.J. who used a circuitious method to kill his wife and get away with it or is just a guy who decided his wife had to "die with dignity?"
What does it matter, he killed her with the help of Attorney Felos and Judge Greer.
And who is to die next. In America we may get another Terri Schiavo some day, but as far as methods go, perhaps a notable case of euthanasia may take place soon in Israel.
Ariel Sharon has been in a coma since his stroke and I wonder if the experts come out soon and say he is in a "persistent vegetative state." I guess his son Omri, convicted of bribery and appealing a prison sentence, will make the call.
Maybe Sharon will be put to death and it will be announced later. And I still wonder if he may be kept alive in that state. Its a little hard for me to believe Israelis would use the same methods as the Nazis. Or will they take the route of the Dutch and speak of "compassion" while committing a Nazi act?
There are many more, of course. I suppose you know that.
The similarities are painful as is the realization that this nation allowed the murder of Terri Schiavo.
Wow.
Godwin's Law invoked on the first post. Must be a new record.
Yes, I did a history with the stories that "made the news."
and in vile, hate filled San Francisco, where no doubt a huge majority of people cheered Schiavo's death, they are trying to spend Umpteen millions of dollars on a suicide barrier for the GG Bridge. Which begs the question. You wanted Schiavo to die, though her parents wanted her to live and it was not clear that she communicated to her husband that with which he has attributed to her. But, people who want to die by jumping and being swept out to sea, they must be stopped?
Filthy Sodom by the Sea never dissappoints.
You better believe they did!!! God Bless the Schindler Family today as they relive and grieve the loss of their daughter and sister. Our nation will never be the same until they repent of this GROSS SIN!
Ping.
Pinged from Terri APRIL Dailies
8mm
If there's one thing everyone can agree on, it's make sure you put down in writing exactly what you want in the event of being incapacitated in this manner. Saves a lot of hurt and argument.
I personally would sooner be allowed to move on, naturally, than have my life, which I may not even be aware of or that could be a living nighmare, supported unaturally. Ideally, nobody else should have a say other than the person involved, whether through signed testament or preferably through verbal communication in front of witnesses at the time. Families, even though they mean well, can often take their own interests first over those of the person who'se condition is critical.
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