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Revisiting Terri Schiavo

Submitted by classicliberal2 on Fri, 10/02/2009 - 21:05
in

It's been a little over four years since the Terri Schiavo matter very publicly played itself out. As an "issue," it's an interesting one, because it seems to cut across every possible line that usually divides us, which sort of gets to why its appropriate to put "issue" in quotes. Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, did their best to turn the affair into a public war against Terri's husband Micheal, and to wrest control over the fate of the permanently vegetative remains of their daughter from him. They enlisted elements of the nut right in a massively financed campaign of defamation and slander aimed at Michael, and of disinformation aimed at rallying public support for their cause. Congressional Republicans, sensing a great issue, attempted to exploit the situation, passing legislation aimed at interfering in the matter, legislation "President" Bush cut short one of his seemingly infinite vacations in order to sign. The public just didn't bite, though. In spite of these efforts, Americans--even majorities of conservatives--remained with the husband.

I'm interested in what the conservatives here--at least the more thoughtful ones--thought about the matter, and what they think about it now. Have your views changed? Are they more firm than ever? The extent of the lies and misinformation the Schindlers and their allies used to pollute the discourse on the subject is staggering; how much of that still hangs around?

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Ask Terri Schiavo how much we should trust the government

Submitted by Wayne from Jere... on Sat, 10/03/2009 - 00:20.

Not here but pro lifers still rally behind her.

3 days ago - Terri Schiavo's grave-marker falsely indicates she was dead for 15 years. “Was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because ...

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aprolifeblogs.com%20schiavo&hl=en&c...

Google displays 43,600 search results with search limited to less than 1 year old

 

 

 

Imagine if Bush had felt about spending

Submitted by JMR on Sat, 10/03/2009 - 09:59.

Like he felt about Schiavo. He may have *claimed* to want less spending, but let's look what he did in each case. Control freakery trumps all with today's Republicans. Until/unless they do a better job on this issue, the neocons in that party need libertarian supervision. And promises at election time don't count if you govern as a statist, guys.

If spending had been treated like the Terri controversy...

Submitted by Joseph Hertzlinger on Sun, 10/04/2009 - 21:12.

... Congress would have done something throroughly ineffective.

Maybe they did treated spending like the Terri controversy.

I see no reason to change my mind

Submitted by Joseph Hertzlinger on Sun, 10/04/2009 - 21:23.

The only possible reason would be the results of the autopsy ... and the autopsy showed the presence of a brain (with neurons yet).

As for the purported violations of libertarian principle, Clayton Cramer had some ideas on how she could have been kept alive without using State power.

The Schindlers would have had

Submitted by classicliberal2 on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 00:44.

The Schindlers would have had the world believe there was barely anything wrong with Terri at all; that she could eat, speak, recognize people, track a balloon, and even had a chance of recovery. The accounts of the actual physicians who examined her--and every reputable one was of one voice in this matter--was that her condition was extensive, irreversible, and that the assertions of the Schindlers and their paid stooges were laughable  The autopsy showed that they actually radically understated the case, and proved Terri had been "alive," for years, in name only.

One side exaggerated a little

Submitted by Joseph Hertzlinger on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 00:26.

Are you saying that if one side erroneously claimed Terri was in nearly-good health, that means she was dead?

The term "brain dead" has an actual meaning. In order to be brain dead, all brain function must cease. Terri had a working brain stem and wasn't even in a decerebrate posture.

40 days for health reform vs 40 days for life.

Submitted by Wayne from Jere... on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 12:11.

There is a battle going on with the extremists on the right pointing out that Matth. 25 is written to the Church not the State. And pointing out that good deeds done wrongly are meaningless. Charity is not done through taxation - God loves a cheerful giver. How things are done matters - the end does not justify the means. It is not the state that will inherit eternal life (Jesus did not die to save the state) but the individual. The individual is the item of value.

Those who would use tax dollars for philanthropy need more than libertarian supervision they need to be "rebuked" in the same way that those who say the Constitution gives one the right to kill an unwanted child.

For a free society people must be responsible for their actions, they must be guided by morals they except and impose on themselves. Widows and orphans do need charity, those that pitty them should be allowed to freely give to them.

In casting a net over what may be called "extremists" take care to discern where they actually stand. I would not put those who say abortion is constitutional in the same category as those who say gun rights are constitutional they both claim the word Constitution but the similarity ends there.