Killing Terri Schiavo
Thomas Sowell (back to web version) |
SendPosted on 03/24/2005 3:26:10 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past
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Killing Terri Schiavo
Thomas Sowell (back to web version) | Send
March 24, 2005
People who say that the government has no business interfering in a private decision like removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube somehow have no problem with a squad of policemen preventing her parents (or anyone else) from giving their daughter food or water.
Do those who want to keep the government out of private decisions think that the police are not the government? Do they think that the judges who authorized this are not the government?
Sadly, this is not the only Alice-in-Wonderland confusion of words and deeds in this tragic case.
We are being told that Terri Schiavo is being "allowed" to "die a natural death." Such an argument might make some sense if this were a terminally ill person. But Terri Schiavo is not dying from anything other than a lack of food and water, from which any of the rest of us would die.
She is not dying a natural death. She is being killed.
What is being kept alive artificially is the liberal media version of events. One side of this story is being repeated endlessly, as if it were gospel, but anyone saying something different -- including doctors and nurses who have actually seen or taken care of Terri Schiavo -- is unlikely to be reported.
The nature of death by starvation and dehydration is also being depicted as "gentle" in the words of the New York Times -- the same New York Times which in 2002 reported starving people in India dying "clutching pained stomachs."
This "gentle" death is the story line in the liberal media but a priest who has actually seen Terri Schiavo tells a wholly different story of her visibly deteriorating condition. If this is such an easy death, why not videotape it and show those of us who are less enlightened how mistaken we are? Instead, there is a ban on anyone's photographing Terri as she dies.
Despite the oft-repeated claim that Terri Schiavo is being "allowed" to die, supposedly in accordance with her own wishes, the only person who says that these were her wishes is the one person who wants her dead and who personally stands to benefit from her death -- her husband, Michael Schiavo.
When Sean Hannity said this on the Fox News channel's "Hannity & Colmes" program, he was assured by a lawyer who was defending the removal of the feeding tube that Michael Schiavo was not the only one to hear Terri say this. But, when Hannity demanded to know the name of just one other person, the lawyer followed an old lawyer's maxim: "When your case is weak, shout louder!" He shouted and waxed indignant -- but did not produce the name of any other person.
This case is one where many people speak with certainty about very uncertain things -- and the certainties of one side contradict the certainties of the other.
Many seem certain that Terri Schiavo is vegetative, does not understand what is going on around her and cannot respond. But Carla Sauer Iyer, a nurse who attended Mrs. Schiavo for more than a year, has contradicted all of this. Moreover, she has painted a very different picture of Michael Schiavo than the one he presents to the courts and to the media.
But you are not likely to find her eyewitness account of events in the mainstream media.
According to this nurse, Michael Schiavo complained that his wife wasn't dying fast enough -- only the word he used was not wife or woman but a word that cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.
The nurse's sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, is that she reported to the police that she had found Terri in both medical and emotional distress after a closed door visit by her husband -- and that she also found a vial of insulin, as well as needle marks on Terri, after Michael Schiavo's visit.
The same mainstream media that will scour the country to find individuals to quote in support of killing Terri Schiavo will not lift a finger to investigate the chilling charges this nurse filed with the police years ago. It might disturb the picture they are trying to paint.
Terri Schiavo is being killed because she is inconvenient to her husband and because she is inconvenient to those who do not want the idea of the sanctity of life to be strengthened and become an impediment to abortion. Nor do they want the supremacy of judges to be challenged, when judges are the liberals' last refuge.
©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Contact Thomas Sowell | Read Sowell's biography
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I can't believe this is happening in America. The thought of taking up arms has occurred to me as well. "Do not stand idly by your brothers blood" is a biblical command from the Old Testament. I'll have to find the exact citation, but we're standing idly by, while someone is being killed. This is an abomination. My God have mercy on this country.
The "human wave" approach to rescue Terri would be my choice, would result in minimal bloodshed, assuming the police have orders not to shoot unarmed civilians.
Bless you Thomas Sowell. Too bad you're not Governor of Florida.
Thomas Sowell transcends labels. His writings make it clear that he doesn't support either a Democrat or Republican agenda, because he thinks neither party is fully rational. To the extent that he agrees with Christian conservatives, it's because of his independent analysis of their positions; he reaches the same conclusions by different means.
Dr. Sowell is a great mind. When I'm ambivalent about an issue, I check my opinions against his. If I disagree because of a faith position, then I'll "agree to disagree," but if it's a matter of reasoning, I'll defer to Sowell.
Be specific and tell us just what you would have JEB do should he get off his preppy butt.
It would have to be a large number of people ready to block roads and vehicles from entering and leaving. A real danger would be for some trooper to see them loosing control of the situation and hurting Terri.
Remember how humanely the Nazis took care of the "Jewish problem." Why, the ovens made their death painless! Death by painless gas chamber.
Please. That's silly.
Amen. I thought sure we'd see more Christians with water bottles in line at the hospice...
Food and water given by mouth are not life support or extraordinary means in any shape, form or fashion. No judge has the power to order a person be denied food and water by mouth. I defy anyone to show me a legal authority for such an abomination. Why is Jeb waiting? Has this specific facet of this case been challenged? If not, why not?
Well I wouldn't come in handing out party baloons...
The day my daughter and future son in law told me that the planned to get married, I congratulated them and told him that if he ever hurts my little girl, I'll kill him. He knows that I meant it.
I love him like a son, he's a great husband to my daughter and a wonderful father to my grandson. He's a great guy. I just wanted to establish a base line that couldn't be crossed.
After familiarizing myself with this situation, I was appalled. Michael Shiavo is committing first-degree murder with the help and blessing of our judiciary.
Some say that this is a "States rights" issue? Bull!
Why can't I get the comparison of this situation with the Dred Scott case out of my head? The law may have been served, but justice was flushed down the toilet.
Good post.
From the ever clear mind of Thomas Sowell.
Simple reason, rdb, you're a student of history and a smart guy.
You sound exactly like my father. He's said the same to the three guys who married my three sisters. He is a jovial, peaceful man. Far and away more peaceful than I.
But when he talks in full sincerity, no one doubts him. And I don't doubt you.
Red
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