Christian Hartsock
Life, liberals, and the pursuit of judicial tyranny
By Christian Hartsock
Michael Schiavo seems awfully eager to have his wife starved to death. Fifteen years following her "accidental" collapse which left her with severe brain damage and mysterious bone fractures not yet accounted for by her husband even to this day, Terri Schiavo's death sentence has been set for March 18 by Florida Circuit Judge George Greer.
While he wasn't meeting, impregnating and getting engaged to other women, Mr. Schiavo has spent the past decade-and-a-half endeavoring to deprive Terri of the nutrition and hydration supply that is keeping her alive. Admittedly, throughout his lovely legacy of feverishly pushing to have his wife disposed of like yesterday's garbage, Mr. Schiavo has come up with at least one slam-dunk rationalization: her inferior ability to swallow properly.
After the first removal of Terri's feeding tube on October 15, 2003, Mr. Schiavo clamored in a public statement: "Over the years, I had three swallowing tests performed on Terri in the hope that some of the therapies would allow her to be weaned off the feeding tube. The tests all showed no change, and I was advised she could not swallow food."
For purposes of clarification, what Mr. Schiavo must have meant by the phrase "over the years" is actually: "over 10 years ago." As maintained by Terri's brother Bobby Schindler that very same week, Terri has not been administered any swallow tests, nor therapy for that matter, since before 1993 (the same year Mr. Schiavo withheld antibiotics needed to treat an infection he would later admit could have killed her).
Indeed, Mr. Schiavo has been doing everything in his power to prevent Terri from being able to swallow anything. According to the Schindler family, Schiavo has demanded for over a decade that no attempts be made to feed Terri by mouth, or even train her to consume sustenance orally. Mr. Schiavo's lawyers even refused to let Terri receive her final Holy Communion.
Interestingly, it was not until 1998, (eight years after Terri's collapse, five years after her accumulation of $1 million in medical malpractice suit awards which her husband stood to inherit and three years after her husband's engagement to another woman) that it randomly dawned on Mr. Schiavo that, come to think of it, his wife just happened to have once asked him earlier on in their marriage to terminate her should she ever fall into a permanent vegetative state. Disregarding that a) this claim was completely unsubstantiated, b) it is highly unlikely that given her Catholic faith, Terri would want that, and c) Terri was never even in a permanent vegetative state, Judge Greer found the claim to be "clear and convincing," and ultimately approved the removal of Terri's feeding tube. (Greer must have interesting methods of determining where to place the benefit of the doubt in ambiguous life-or-death situations.)
After Terri survived a subsequent near-fatal week of conscious starvation, Governor Jeb Bush swooped in with an executive order to have her feeding tube restored. Frightened by the notion that his wife's execution might not exactly go as planned, Michael Schiavo filed suit with his attorneys and the ACLU against Governor Bush, successfully condemning the move as an unconstitutional abuse of gubernatorial powers. (As indicated, the ACLU elites are vituperatively opposed to the death penalty insofar as it applies to convicted killers and terrorists, yet they are suddenly stalwart supporters of it when it comes to unborn infants and retarded hospital patients.)
Mr. Schiavo has insisted that pulling the plug on Terri would in effect constitute a "mercy killing." Perhaps if the process didn't involve 10 to 14 days of unbearable thirst, hunger, seizures, skin-cracking and possible heaving, vomiting and nosebleeds, the term "mercy" would sound at least somewhat less inappropriate.
In his public statement, Schiavo claimed: "The reality is that Terri left us 13 years ago, and none of us can bring her back." In addition, he accused the Schindler family of being in denial of Terri's "permanent vegetative state." ...Except that she is not in a permanent vegetative state. As defined in the Florida Statute 765.101, such a condition would involve "[t]he absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of any kind," and [a]n inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment." To the contrary, Terri laughs, cries, moves, reacts to stimuli, and responds to her parents — answering "yeah" to their questions and addressing them as "Mom" or "Dad." This is, of course, when her parents have the opportunity to visit her — a privilege which was revoked at Schiavo's request on October 21, 2003.
Even if Terri were nearly as much of an irreparable mess as Mr. Schiavo would have us believe she is, there would still be no moral pretexts for her termination. The whole concept of euthanasia is predicated on the epicurean presupposition that the value of human life should be measured by the extent to which it is enjoyed. Thus, when an individual is stymied from the ability to enjoy life in the conventional fashion that most other humans are privileged enough to enjoy it (or, God forbid, they can't swallow properly), then that individual's life is somehow rendered inferior and less worthy of preservation.
The justification also rests on the myth that such a thing even exists as a "right to die." Contrary to the rhetoric of liberal Florida judges and ACLU lawyers, there is no "right to die." Explicitly, the Constitution ensures "the right to life, liberty, and property" (emphasis added). Furthermore, the framers acknowledged these rights as being endowed by God, to be protected by the government. Once our judicial system assumes the divine authority of determining whether a poor, helpless woman like Terri lives or dies, it promotes the implication that the right to life is solely contingent upon the will of the State, rather than the will of God. Moreover, if the federal government disclaims its subordinance to divine providence and establishes itself as the official guarantor of human rights, then no longer will we as humans have rights. Those who lived through Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia are certainly familiar with the consequences of a human institution taking on the role of God. If our rights are duly recognized as being God-given, they are untouchable. If they are merely State-given, they are finite and vulnerable to nullification.
Terri Schiavo has a God-given right to live, and a constitutional right to be protected. Therefore, the Florida judiciary has absolutely no business determining her fate. This hideous decision will cheapen the value of human life as it is recognized by the United States government, and will be a monumental step towards rendering obsolete the constitutional right to life by making it a conditional right; vulnerable to neglect and abuse by the very powers which were put in place to protect it. Indeed, the impact of this historic judicial precedent will not be limited to Terri's grieving loved ones, but will extend to all Americans who value man's most sacred gift and expect their most basic natural and constitutional rights to be respected under the law. Yes, even those who can swallow properly.
© Christian Hartsock
Michael Schiavo seems awfully eager to have his wife starved to death. Fifteen years following her "accidental" collapse which left her with severe brain damage and mysterious bone fractures not yet accounted for by her husband even to this day, Terri Schiavo's death sentence has been set for March 18 by Florida Circuit Judge George Greer.
While he wasn't meeting, impregnating and getting engaged to other women, Mr. Schiavo has spent the past decade-and-a-half endeavoring to deprive Terri of the nutrition and hydration supply that is keeping her alive. Admittedly, throughout his lovely legacy of feverishly pushing to have his wife disposed of like yesterday's garbage, Mr. Schiavo has come up with at least one slam-dunk rationalization: her inferior ability to swallow properly.
After the first removal of Terri's feeding tube on October 15, 2003, Mr. Schiavo clamored in a public statement: "Over the years, I had three swallowing tests performed on Terri in the hope that some of the therapies would allow her to be weaned off the feeding tube. The tests all showed no change, and I was advised she could not swallow food."
For purposes of clarification, what Mr. Schiavo must have meant by the phrase "over the years" is actually: "over 10 years ago." As maintained by Terri's brother Bobby Schindler that very same week, Terri has not been administered any swallow tests, nor therapy for that matter, since before 1993 (the same year Mr. Schiavo withheld antibiotics needed to treat an infection he would later admit could have killed her).
Indeed, Mr. Schiavo has been doing everything in his power to prevent Terri from being able to swallow anything. According to the Schindler family, Schiavo has demanded for over a decade that no attempts be made to feed Terri by mouth, or even train her to consume sustenance orally. Mr. Schiavo's lawyers even refused to let Terri receive her final Holy Communion.
Interestingly, it was not until 1998, (eight years after Terri's collapse, five years after her accumulation of $1 million in medical malpractice suit awards which her husband stood to inherit and three years after her husband's engagement to another woman) that it randomly dawned on Mr. Schiavo that, come to think of it, his wife just happened to have once asked him earlier on in their marriage to terminate her should she ever fall into a permanent vegetative state. Disregarding that a) this claim was completely unsubstantiated, b) it is highly unlikely that given her Catholic faith, Terri would want that, and c) Terri was never even in a permanent vegetative state, Judge Greer found the claim to be "clear and convincing," and ultimately approved the removal of Terri's feeding tube. (Greer must have interesting methods of determining where to place the benefit of the doubt in ambiguous life-or-death situations.)
After Terri survived a subsequent near-fatal week of conscious starvation, Governor Jeb Bush swooped in with an executive order to have her feeding tube restored. Frightened by the notion that his wife's execution might not exactly go as planned, Michael Schiavo filed suit with his attorneys and the ACLU against Governor Bush, successfully condemning the move as an unconstitutional abuse of gubernatorial powers. (As indicated, the ACLU elites are vituperatively opposed to the death penalty insofar as it applies to convicted killers and terrorists, yet they are suddenly stalwart supporters of it when it comes to unborn infants and retarded hospital patients.)
Mr. Schiavo has insisted that pulling the plug on Terri would in effect constitute a "mercy killing." Perhaps if the process didn't involve 10 to 14 days of unbearable thirst, hunger, seizures, skin-cracking and possible heaving, vomiting and nosebleeds, the term "mercy" would sound at least somewhat less inappropriate.
In his public statement, Schiavo claimed: "The reality is that Terri left us 13 years ago, and none of us can bring her back." In addition, he accused the Schindler family of being in denial of Terri's "permanent vegetative state." ...Except that she is not in a permanent vegetative state. As defined in the Florida Statute 765.101, such a condition would involve "[t]he absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of any kind," and [a]n inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment." To the contrary, Terri laughs, cries, moves, reacts to stimuli, and responds to her parents — answering "yeah" to their questions and addressing them as "Mom" or "Dad." This is, of course, when her parents have the opportunity to visit her — a privilege which was revoked at Schiavo's request on October 21, 2003.
Even if Terri were nearly as much of an irreparable mess as Mr. Schiavo would have us believe she is, there would still be no moral pretexts for her termination. The whole concept of euthanasia is predicated on the epicurean presupposition that the value of human life should be measured by the extent to which it is enjoyed. Thus, when an individual is stymied from the ability to enjoy life in the conventional fashion that most other humans are privileged enough to enjoy it (or, God forbid, they can't swallow properly), then that individual's life is somehow rendered inferior and less worthy of preservation.
The justification also rests on the myth that such a thing even exists as a "right to die." Contrary to the rhetoric of liberal Florida judges and ACLU lawyers, there is no "right to die." Explicitly, the Constitution ensures "the right to life, liberty, and property" (emphasis added). Furthermore, the framers acknowledged these rights as being endowed by God, to be protected by the government. Once our judicial system assumes the divine authority of determining whether a poor, helpless woman like Terri lives or dies, it promotes the implication that the right to life is solely contingent upon the will of the State, rather than the will of God. Moreover, if the federal government disclaims its subordinance to divine providence and establishes itself as the official guarantor of human rights, then no longer will we as humans have rights. Those who lived through Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia are certainly familiar with the consequences of a human institution taking on the role of God. If our rights are duly recognized as being God-given, they are untouchable. If they are merely State-given, they are finite and vulnerable to nullification.
Terri Schiavo has a God-given right to live, and a constitutional right to be protected. Therefore, the Florida judiciary has absolutely no business determining her fate. This hideous decision will cheapen the value of human life as it is recognized by the United States government, and will be a monumental step towards rendering obsolete the constitutional right to life by making it a conditional right; vulnerable to neglect and abuse by the very powers which were put in place to protect it. Indeed, the impact of this historic judicial precedent will not be limited to Terri's grieving loved ones, but will extend to all Americans who value man's most sacred gift and expect their most basic natural and constitutional rights to be respected under the law. Yes, even those who can swallow properly.
© Christian Hartsock
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