Mark Steyn: Public execution

The Spectator ^ | April 2, 2005 | Mark Steyn

[Fenris6]

this woman is being put to death without any serious medical evaluation more recent than 12 years ago.

[Desdemona]

As usual, Steyn hits the nail on the head.

[Fenris6]

I’d be irked to find I was being deported to Pyongyang on the grounds that, while watching a TV documentary late one night in 1987, I’d been heard to say, ‘Wow, you know it’d be kinda cool to go to North Korea, don’t you think?’

Damn he's good.

[KoRn]

We have just witnessed judicially imposed euthanasia. No legislation passed, no constitutional application, and no citizen voting for it. This case is now precedent for euthanasia. If you are elderly or young but mentally retarded look out. You could be next.

The real concern I have now is; who in the hell runs this country?!? It seems the Judicial branch can rule over the Executive and Legislative branches with no problem.

Are the courts gonna have their own military service anytime soon?

[AHerald]

This is exactly the sort of intolerant, ignorant right wing fundamentalist garbage that's turning off the mainstream public and forcing the rational, commonsensical "True Federalist" FReepers to leave FreeRepublic.

/sarcasm

[Fledermaus]

If most of the idiots out there, including those on the right (all lefties are idiots) would bother to actually read the facts from day one, they'd be appalled and suspicious at what has been transpiring.

Michael Schiavo, his doctors, the nurses, the hospice, his lawyer Felos, Judge Greer, etc. are ALL members of the same society of death cultists and ALL are associated with the hospice. Mark Levin was going through it the other night and I believe he said they even own most of it and others.

But the lazy left wing press will never report the facts any longer. They are too f'ing busy indoctrinating those still bothering to read or watch them with the IQ's of dogs or are elitist pigs that want to rule the world via Marx and Hillary.

Oh, but I'm supposed to be civil. I'm supposed to have respect for democracy with these monsters in our midst.

Well sue me if I refuse. Call me names if I get in their faces. Kill me when I suggest death would be too good for these hideous minions of Satan.

My conscious will always be clear.

[Fenris6]

Did you notice that Steyn's audience is international and not primarily Christian - he made a point not to lapse into scripture or villify people as evil. Hmmmm, wonder why?

[Fenris6]

See? I was ready to lock & load until you started saying things like "hideous minions of Satan."

[maine-iac7]

Do you remember a fellow called Robert Wendland?

Yes, as a matter of fact.

His wife was not successful in starving him to death because of a Judge - who happens to be a man I know well, and know to be a brilliant, compassionate, fair, honest and probably the personification of what we grew up thinking a judge would be. We could use someone like him on the Supreme Court.

He is now Presiding Judge at the San Joaquin County Superior Court.

This is from THE RECORD newspaper, Wednesday, December 10, 1997:

Judge rejects plea to end Stockton man's life support By Kimi Yoshino Record Staff Writer

Robert Wendland should not be allowed to die by disconnecting the feeding tube that has kept him alive for four years, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt declared Tuesday.

The surprise ruling cut short a high-profile trial monitored by medical and legal scholars across the country.

Judge McNatt said: ""If I must err, I am going to err on the side of caution. It is necessary that I choose life. ... I don't know at this point whether here today I am preserving Robert's life or whether I am sentencing him to life."

"I feel that this is the absolutely wrong decision for all the right reasons," McNatt said. "I entertain a strong suspicion that Robert would have wanted to die." But McNatt said a strong suspicion is not enough evidence to end the 45-year-old Stockton man's life as requested by Wendland's wife, Rose Wendland,...and his court-appointed attorney, Deputy Public Defender Doran Berg. They did not -- and could not -- meet their clear and convincing burden of proof under California law, McNatt said."

If McNatt had allowed Wendland's life-sustaining feeding tube to be removed, it would have been a first for a California court. No judge has endorsed withdrawing life support from a person in Wendland's condition, conscious but unable to communicate because of serious brain damage from a 1993 car crash. Wendland's mother, Florence Wendland, and sister Rebekah Vinson, who fought since July 1995 to keep him alive, met McNatt's decision with relieved tears. "We are on top of the world," Vinson said. "We are going to relax for the first time in 2 1/2 years." Rose Wendland, who testified that her husband did not have a living will but had told her he would not want to live without being a "father, husband and provider," sat in stunned silence and quickly left the Stockton courtroom without comment. McNatt described Rose Wendland as one of the most selfless and devoted wives he has seen, but he said that to rule in her favor, he would have to extend the bounds of California law. "If I must err, I am going to err on the side of caution. It is necessary that I choose life," McNatt said. "I am not ready to start down that slippery slope without some form of guidance." The ruling, which McNatt predicted would be appealed, came 1 1/2 hours after the court day usually ends and before Wendland's mother and sister presented their case. Elements of the case have been considered by the state Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. The case also has grabbed headlines in national magazines, won attention on Internet bulletin boards and aired on the TV newsmagazine "Dateline NBC."

A very similar case as Terri's - with very different results .............How I wished, these past weeks, that Terri had had her case brought before Bobby

[Petronski]

Perfect.

[ClancyJ]

Boy, I was just about to fire off a comment. Good thing you put in the /sarcasm.

Steyn is great. Funny how some can so clearly understand.

[ClancyJ]

Boy, I was just about to fire off a comment. Good thing you put in the /sarcasm.

Steyn is great. Funny how some can so clearly understand while others just do not get it. Are we in a parallel world?

[snowsislander]

If he’d stop his shrill bleating for a couple of minutes, he might notice that the ‘theocrats’ who want Terri Schiavo to live include Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader and Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who’s not just a Democrat but a gay one.

I don't think Mr. Steyn is correct about Congressman Frank -- I thank that Congressman Frank was one of the leaders of the pro-death camp:

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Jim Davis of Florida, two who led the opposition on the House floor to congressional intervention, declined to talk about the politics of the issue, saying it was a day of mourning.

[phatus maximus]

Just think in 10 years this will be routine because there won't be enough rooms for all the elderly who are in the same situation..

[snowsislander]

Ooops.

Try that bit again:

I thank think that Congressman Frank was one of the leaders of the pro-death camp:

[AHerald]

Did you notice that Steyn's audience is international and not primarily Christian - he made a point not to lapse into scripture or villify people as evil. Hmmmm, wonder why?

I did. And I prefer Steyn's style, to say the least. And lest you or others think I defend or align myself with those who would refer to all their opponents on this issue as evil, let me be clear: I can't stomach that sort of argument and demonization. Period. But I accept that the extreme ugliness--from both sides--is part of life on public debate forums, especially when dealing with deeply emotional and divisive issues such as this.

My sarcasm was aimed at those here who've become such obsessive defenders of legalistic processes that they reflexively dismiss cogent arguments on behalf of Terri, like Steyn's, as being equivalent to ignorant extremism.

[maine-iac7]

I thank that Congressman Frank was one of the leaders of the pro-death camp:

It will be a long time before I get the picture out of my mind of Frank on the Sunday night emergency meeting of Congress - leading the screaming descent against "interfering" for Terri. He was at his best raging, ignorant self.

[Bogolyubski]

Steyn is a temendously talented writer with a unique gift for cutting through the spin and lies generated by the MSM and the left - leaving the reader to ponder the truth about the big pitcure. Even better, in these latest articles he reaffirms an important moral principle - the sanctity of life - in which our civilization is rooted. This principle has been shockingly disavowed by many so-called "conservatives" in this nation over the past several weeks.

If your're reading this, Mark, thanks for standing up and agruing for what is right. You've presented us with the essential truth of what has happened here. Thanks so much.

[Eagles6]

Too bad Gw and Jeb didn't have his 'nads. Steyn is approaching the realm of VDH as a "Search and Read".