Thanks Charlite
Very good read. And so true.
This reminds me of the book "Johnny got his Gun", by Dalton Trumbo. The book is about a soldier in WWI who get all of his limbs blown off, goes deaf, loses his sight, and loses his speech, from a bomb. In the story, the soldier becomes concious again and realizes that he is just a "piece of meat that keeps on living." Years pass, and eventually he is able to communicate with his nurse by morse code. She tells the military about him, and they communicate. He tells them what its like to be a vegtable, and he asks them to kill him. When he does not get his wish granted, he realizes life for him will be a living hell for the rest of his existance. I think when you're nothing but a brainless bag of skin, you have the right to die.
The fact that so many of my fellow Americans think this decision is right fills me with despair.
It is really pretty simple do we put her to death for being a useless disabled person or let her continue to provide joy to those who love her?
That would have been Judge Greer.
The reason he couldn't say that to Michael was that he was charged, by Florida law, to find "clear and convincing" evidence as to Terri's wishes as they related to her condition.
The judge examined the evidence, heard sworn testimony, and concluded that Terri would not have wanted to live that way.
No one on this board wants to hear this, but it isn't the courts who made the case so complex, it is the Schindlers. The law says that the husband is the next of kin, not the parents, and barring directives to the contrary he is the presumptive guardian. The Schindlers don't like this, which I understand, and refuse to accept it, which has resulted in endless litigation.
Whether you agree with Michael Schiavo's decision or not, it is in line with what many others have done, given the doctors' diagnosis and the length of time elapsed. He would not have been publicly criticized, were it not for the Schindlers' long campaign to villanize him and contest the doctors' opinions on Terri's condition.
Perhaps it would have been best for the Schindlers to take custody of their daughter and care for her, since they feel so strongly about it. But litigation hasn't accomplished this. Th outcome causes one to wonder if possibly there wasn't a better way. It takes two to make a feud.
Charlite, when big $$$$$$$$$ enter the picture, control over the source for big $$$$$$$$$ must be maintained at all costs. If the source for the big $$$$$$$$$ is the baby, too bad for the baby. That SEEMED to be the complicating factor.
I know that sometimes things can look an awful lot like they are a certain way, almost 99% like they're that way and not be that way at all. Our perceptions can be sincere, but sincerely wrong in attempting to judge another person's motives. Christ is the judge, and I am glad for that.
What is obvious is that Greer never had any intention of making any decision other than to order Terri killed. For some reason, he hates the disabled.
That's not a "Solomonic" solution, it's a SOPHOMORIC solution. JOEL BELZ forgets (if he ever knew) that Terri is Catholic. She could only get a declaration of nullity which says that no marriage ever existed in the first place. If that were the case, he would have no grounds for being her guardian. Now, directed merely at Michael, who they say is not Catholic but Lutheran (I'm not sure), his divorcing Terri would be assuming he WANTS to divorce her.
Belz might not be willing to think that MS could have an ulterior motive: keeping the b**ch quiet, so he doesn't get in trouble for her injuries in the first place. If he does, that would explain everything, including his continuing penchant to control Terri's life, or what's left of it, anyway.
A judge hearing the dispute between Michael and the Schindlers should have resolved it by ordering a divorce that had not been requested by either spouse and that he didn't have the authority to grant?
Remember that the next time you use the phrase "judicial activism"...
Whatever preceeded the status quo. Today, in the United States, there is a 41 year-old woman being held in captivity, surviving without life support equipment, without food, without water. She is separated from her parents, who want to ease her hunger and thirst, by armed law enforcement officers, sworn to prevent their efforts at saving her life under threat of force, arrest and imprisonment.
And we call this the land of the free, the home of the brave.
I am fully aware that Terri had failed three swallowing tests a decade ago. Such tests determined that trying to feed Terri orally would not worth the risk given that other methods of feeding were available. They did not determine that such methods had a zero percent chance of success, but rather that they had a non-zero chance of harmful failure. Even if oral feeding would have had a 90% chance of success, it would have been contraindicated if there were a 5% chance of aspiration.
BTW, to use an analogy I offered in another thread: would it be prudent for a pilot to try to land a passenger airliner without using any of the hydraulically-operated control surfaces--indeed, using practically nothing except the thrust controls on two of the engines? Such an attempt would be considered sheer folly in any normal circumstance, but a pilot in fact did land a DC-10 that way after an exploding engine killed all of the plain's hydraulic systems. Crazy, and with very little chance of success, but given the alternative of a crash killing everyone on board any attempt to save the situation, trying to have a semi-controlled crash-landing seems only prudent (IIRC, about half the passengers survived).
So what legitimate basis is there for Greer's order forbidding oral hydration?
bttt
good find...thank you for sharing it.
Have you all seen this incredible tape of Terri opening her eyes for the dr. - he keeps saying "open you eyes{ - so she finally arches her eyebrows high and her eyes wide as if to say: "Hey, how about THIS!"
It will make you laugh and then cry - SHE IS THERE - she needs therapy...THIS IS A MUST - must get it our everyone. I've sent it to all the FOX addresses, Rush, Hannity ets - but they have to get slammed with this to pay attention, so it doesn't get lost.
http://web.Tampabay.rr.com/ccb/videos/Terri_Big_Eyes.rm
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
-- William Shakespeare