Queue onimous music...
Posted on 03/25/2005 11:00:53 AM PST by nickcarraway
Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith, author of the award winning book Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America call upon the Florida Courts and Governor Jeb Bush to take any legal action available to let Terri Schiavo live.
“A profound injustice is being inflicted on Terri Schiavo,” Nader and Smith asserted today. “Worse, this slow death by dehydration is being imposed upon her under the color of law, in proceedings in which every benefit of the doubt—and there are many doubts in this case—has been given to her death, rather than her continued life.”
Among the many injustices in this case, Nader and Smith point to the following:
• The courts not only are refusing her tube feeding, but have ordered that no attempts be made to provide her water or food by mouth. Terri swallows her own saliva. Spoon feeding is not medical treatment. “This outrageous order proves that the courts are not merely permitting medical treatment to be withheld, it has ordered her to be made dead,” Nader and Smith assert. • The medical and rehabilitation experts are split on whether Terri is in a persistent vegetative state or whether Terri can be improved with therapy. There is only one way to know for sure—permit the therapy. That is the only way to resolve all doubts. • The court is imposing process over justice. After the first trial in this case, much evidence has been produced that should allow for a new trial—which was the point of the federal legislation. If this were a death penalty case, this evidence, this evidence would demand reconsideration. Yet, an innocent disabled woman is receiving less justice. • The federal and state governments are spending billions on what we are told will become miracle medical cures for people with all sorts of degenerative conditions, including brain damage. If this is so, why not permit Terri’s parents to care for her in the hope that such cures are derived.
Benefits of doubts should be given to life, not hastened death. This case is rife with doubt. Justice demands that Terri be permitted to live.
ping
What an odd week. My esteem for Ralph Nader goes up, while my esteem for some FReepers goes down.
Did they write something? Can we get it?
“This outrageous order proves that the courts are not merely permitting medical treatment to be withheld, it has ordered her to be made dead,” Nader and Smith assert.
Amen, gentlemen.
Wow, Ralph Nader??
I am stuned, and so is my beeber....
This is probably the first sensible thing to come out of this knucklehead's mouth in 30 years...
I don't buy this self serving, after the fact grandstanding.
I'm agreeing with Ralph Nader today?!
Next Up - Dogs and Cats sleeping together! Mass Hysteria!
This is an odd twist... Naderites are probably scratching their heads in confusion.
This is the only time that I agree with Ralph Nader.
I actually agree with Ralph Hader and Jesse Jackson in the same week.
Is the world ending soon? Is you know what freezing over? Have the known laws of the universe been twisted so that I now inhabit another dimension? (queue Twilight Zone them music here)
Nader is a Catholic?
Queue onimous music...
This perfectly articulates my frustration with this case.
Naw it is easy to blame the Bush brothers for not sending the army to rescue her... /sarcasm
Wesley Smith is no right winger, either. He's a liberal democrat whom I believe even helped with Al Gore's campaign.
When it comes to life issues he is an articulate spokesman. We heard him interviewed on KSFO in San Francisco this week about the case and he was incredibly informative about it as well as a scary Netherlands movement for harvesting organs of people in Teri's position. Chilling.
ping
It may be grandstanding, but today, this week, I'm giving Nader a pass. I'm finding more agreement with him in this statement than I've found in some of the comments of my so-called conservative brethren this week.
Exactly...no one can believe it. He also dedicated his book to his friend and "mentor" Ralph Nader. His books are excellent.
Perhaps Nader can see down the road a bit, and this road is unsafe at any speed.
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