Please find out more about Terri Schiavo
- see www.lifeandhope.com
The following is an article
that appeared in lifeandhope, the publication of the Terri Schiavo Life and
Hope Network, Volume 6 / 2nd Edition / www.lifeandhope.com, pgs. 4 - 5. It is posted
free of charge here to help further the kingdom of GOD!!!
forgetting how to
LOVE
Are the profoundly disabled and frail elderly living too
long?
" ... bioethicist Daniel Callahan - who saw the feeding
tube as a serious hurdle - boldly stated that changing its classification from
'basic care' to 'medical treatment' would be 'the only effective way to make
certain that a large number of biologically tenacious patients actually
die."
BY BOBBY SCHINDLER / LIFENEWS.COM
Originally appeared as Yes, We have a Culture of
Death
According to research reviewed by board certified medical geneticist and Co-Director of the Down Syndrome Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Skotko, it is estimated that 92 percent of all women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome abort their baby.
World famous atheist proselytizer
and Oxford professor, Richard Dawkins, made headlines when he called it
"immoral" not to abort Down babies "and try again."
Belgium has legalized euthanasia (with
no age limits) for children who have been diagnosed as terminal and with death
expected to occur "within a brief period." If this criteria is
met, then the parents - and child! - may ask in writing for a lethal injection.
The head of Canada's largest doctors'
group has called child euthanasia an "appropriate" choice under
certain circumstances.
Northern Ireland Minister of Justice,
David Ford, is considering a change in the law so that it is legal to kill
pre-born babies suspected of being disabled.
Professor of Bioethics at Princeton
University, Peter Singer, believes we should be permitted to lethally inject
Alzheimer's "non-persons," even if they never asked to be killed.
Currently, there is a strong push
advocating the removal of spoon feeding from Alzheimer's patients if they so
requested in an advance directive.
In 2012, a prominent doctor in the
UK made the chilling claim that the (NHS) - the publicly funded healthcare
systems in the UK (and what most likely Obamacare will look like for us here in
the US) - "kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year."
In a March 2008, New York Times
article titled, "Terminal Options for the Irreversibly Ill", Judith
Schwartz, a registered nurse and clinical coordinator for Compassion and
Choices of New York (formerly known as the Hemlock Society) openly stated that
over one million people die each year in American hospitals as a "a
consequence of someone's decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment."
In the same article, Dr. Sidney
Wanzer and Dr. Joseph Glenmullen of Harvard University Health Services noted
that in situations where a person is going to stop receiving food and water,
"refusal of hydration is faster and less distressing than starvation in
hastening death."
Sadly, these are just a few more
recent examples of the life-threatening prejudices plaguing the disability
community and countless others who are medically vulnerable. Indeed, this
terrible toll does not arise in a cultural vacuum, but reflects attitudes that
assume dead is better than disabled. And, there is no doubt, that
included in the number of patients dying in this sobering New York Times
article, regardless of its title are those with cognitive disabilities who,
every single day, are being starved and hydrated to death - persons who are not
dying, but who are simply living with their disability, and only need basic
care (food and water, via a feeding tube) to live.
It was not long ago that feeding tubes
were considered basic and ordinary care and therefore it was illegal, an act of
euthanasia, to stop feeding and hydrating a person in need of a feeding
tube. Today, however, feeding tubes have been redefined as
"artificial nutrition and hydration" - and therefore a form of
"medical treatment." Consequently, the removal of food and
water from the cognitively disabled patients, and countless other medically
vulnerable people, is now legal and routine in fifty states.
In his book, Culture of Death:
The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, author and bioethicist Wesley J.
Smith writes that, "defining 'artificial nutrition' as treatment instead
of human care was a crucial step in the development of the culture of
death." According to Smith, as far back as the early 80s,
bioethicists began to debate out loud whether or not "the profoundly
disabled and frail were living too long." In particular, bioethicist
Daniel Callahan - who saw the feeding tube as a serious hurdle - boldly stated
that changing its classification from "basic care" to "medical
treatment" would be "the only effective way to make certain that a
large number of biologically tenacious patients actually die."
Eventually, more bioethicists agreed
with Callahan's view, as well as health care professionals, politicians,
judges, and others, ultimately accomplishing their goal of redefining the
administration of food and hydration via a feeding tube.
Today, either the general public is
unaware of this change, or they just don't care. But if you think
dehydrating to death our medically vulnerable isn't happening, then you are not
paying attention.
Whatever the reason, the mainstream
media does very little to properly clear up any confusion that may exist, as
they continue to report that persons who receive food and water via feeding
tubes are receiving "artificial life support," giving the perception
that these people are aided by machines.
Tragically, too many of us today
have become disconnected and desensitized to our own dignity and intrinsic
worth. It seems we no longer know how to love, and we place more
significance and value on what a person can or cannot do, instead of
understanding the value and dignity of the human person simply because they are
human.
As a consequence, every single day
decisions are being made for our medically defenseless to be barbarically
starved and dehydrated to death. Not to mention the offensive claim that
to slowly dehydrate persons to death over a period of weeks is "an act of
compassion;" that they are somehow experiencing death in a dignified
way. This is not compassion. This is not love. This is
intentionally killing, and in the most undignified way.
Recently, Germany made the decision
to inaugurate a memorial for the people with physical and mental disabilities
who, because of their disabilities, were killed by the Nazis after their lives
were deemed "worthless." Estimates are that over 200,000 were
killed.
Perhaps we should consider erecting
one here in the United States.
Bobby Schindler is Executive Director of The Terri Schiavo
Life and Hope Network. The preceding is an article that appeared in
lifeandhope, the publication of the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, Volume
6 / 2nd Edition / www.lifeandhope.com, pgs. 4 - 5. Please visit www.lifeandhope.com.
'Sadly, these are just a few more recent examples of
the life-threatening prejudices plaguing the disability community and countless
others who are medically vulnerable. Indeed, this terrible toll does not
arise in a cultural vacuum, but reflects attitudes that assume dead is better
than disabled.'
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