Life and Death
We, as people, constantly struggle to define what life is. Issues like abortion and the death penalty divide our nation, forcing us to determine who has the right to take and give life.
One Florida woman’s life has rekindled this debate across the world over the right to life, or the right to die.
Background on my opinion: I was adopted when I was just a few weeks old. Because of my birth mother’s decision to have her child, I was given the chance at life. I am indebted to her because she had a choice, she could have terminated her pregnancy. I’d like to say that abortion is wrong, that every person deserves the chance to live, but I can’t say that, if I were put in a difficult position, I’d be able to make that choice. When a person chooses to take another person’s life, (here I’m talking about the murder of an individual who has already been born). I think they deserve the harshest punishment possible. They made a choice, knowing it was wrong and knowing there would be consequences.
There are two very important questions to consider here.
What is life? And. Who has the right to take it away?
Life. I’d like to offer this. Is someone “alive” even when they don’t know they’re alive? Awareness is life, life in the sense of a meaningful life, which, in my opinion is the only kind there should be.
Does lying in a hospital bed for 15 years, completely unaware of your surroundings, constitute life?
Have any of you ever been in the presence of someone who just isn’t “there”? Have you ever seen someone in this state, who doesn’t respond, doesn’t follow you? I think you need to understand what a “persistent vegetative state” is, to be able to make a decision here.
And would you want to live this way?
Insert my opinion here…. I think that Terry Shiavo’s parents are keeping her alive for selfish reasons. They can’t bring themselves to be the ones to “let her go”. In essence, she is only on this earth for her parents’ pleasure and it’s cruel to let anyone live like that. She’s been in an ugly limbo between life and death for more than 15 years.
But does the government have the right to be the determining factor in this decision? No. Her husband, who is her guardian and someone she trusted and confided in while she was alive, is the one who has the right to make that decision. Her parents would have that right if she had not been married. It should be cut and dry.
Here’s the important thing. We all have a strong opinion about what we would want to happen to us. Let someone know. Put it in writing. Make a will. Get a power of attorney. Don’t let this be you.
We all have control over something. WE control our own lives. And even when we can’t physically make those decisions, we can have a legal document that will speak for us when we can’t.
This case isn’t a tragedy. Terry has no idea what’s happening to her anyway. What this case should be is a wake-up to every person in America. Make a plan, make it known. Do the research, get the answers.
28 Comments:
YOU ARE VERY RIGHT, AND I HAVE DONE JUST THAT. Good to hear from ya keep writing.
I know what life means to me....it means spending time with family and friends, soaking up the sunshine on beautiful spring days, crunching through fallen leaves in the autumn, walking in the falling snow, watching my boys wakeboard at the lake, cruising around the lake on the back of my hubby's harley, watching a beautiful sunset, playing volleyball, Friday lunches with my dad, sisters Saturday/Sunday (whichever day works best for the three of us), family cookouts when my brothers come to town or when my middle boy is home on leave, spending weekends at my mother-in-law's place in the country, emails from a friend far away that I didn't get to see when he was nearby, and living every day as if it could be my last. And, you can believe that I've made my wishes clear to my family that I wouldn't want to live like Terry. That's not living.
I just have one question. Is it right to let her starve to death? Is it right for her to die from the lack of nutrition? Is it right to make that desision?
Goodness, WHAT? You believe it is OK to starve someone to death just because they can't tell you they are hungry? Why not just give her a leathal injection, she would not have the pain and suffering you are willing to subject her too. As a mother I would never beable to allow them to starve my child either. That is so inhumane it makes me sick. So she can't tell you she is hungry does that mean she is not hungry?
My perspective on this is personal... I had my mother's power of attorney at the end of her life. I don't have the answer for Terri Schiavo... and neither does anyone else unless it's her husband. They either had that conversation or they didn't, and the parents can either accept that or they can't.
When I had to make the call to stop intervention in my mother's passing the last thing I needed was an opinion from Anonymous.
I think you are correct here, Blair. Terri lives but is not alive and hasn't been for 15 years.
Terri is not being starved. She is unable to eat/drink due to brain damage. A feeding tube is an artificial means of sustaining her life.
And yes, Anonymous, placed in the same circumstance, I would not continue a medical procedure to sustain life...if there was no hope of a person living...even if that person was my child. The bible does teach that there is a time to be born...and a time to die. Terri has not been allowed to die with dignity and that in my mind is inhumane.
I have no reason to believe anything that comes out of Mr. Schiavo's mouth. This man was an obstructionist - a medical saboteur, who for years, while ostensibly acting as Terri's "guardian" actually railed against and prohibited anything that might be construed as therapeutic for his wife. And even though he has received proceeds from a medical malpractice suit, he has refused to allow her to undergo the normal MRI tests to determine whether she is, indeed conscious.
Jack Shepard say Abu Mazen does not have a real peace partner in Ariel Sharon!
By Dr. Jack Shepard
Ariel Sharon's Israeli security people, as the Hebrew expression goes, "have murder in their eyes".
The Israeli and Palestinian Peace demonstrators were only holding olive branches in their hands, when they were savagely attacked by soldiers and policemen, who assaulted them, beat, injured and arrested them, using old and new weapons according to films and photo taken by the Gush Shalom The Israeli Jewish Peace Movement which were forward to me.
According to Uri Avnery; a Jewish Israeli ex-Parliamentarian in his 70's and leader of the Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Movement, which is supported by 75% of the Israeli population; he was knocked to the ground by a particularly ferocious soldier who took hold of his poster he was holding in his hands, and pushed him savagely, knocking him to the ground and the Gush Shalom sign of the flags of Israel and Palestine was also smash and broken to pieces..
The Israeli Peace Movement has the same vision that President George W. Bush has of the States of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and happiness.
The symbolism could not be lost to me while Ariel Sharon's Israeli's Security people were smashing the future flags of Israel and Palestine to the ground and destroying them..
So was Ariel Sharon smashing the cease-fire and violating every promise that he made to President George W. Bush to follow the road map and work for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The American Press is not supporting President George W. Bush in his peace efforts in the Middle East by not reporting such planned violations and systematic planned moves by Ariel Sharon to completely destroy any chances of Peace in the Middle East.
Ariel Sharon's actions like this can be blamed for the hatred toward my fellow Americans now found in the Islamic world.
The recent increase of violence toward our American Troops is caused by suicide bombers that are easily recruited by Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; these are people who have lost all hope. These suicide bombers wish to avenge their Palestinian Brothers, men, women and children who are suffering and being killed by the Israeli Soldiers following the direct orders of Ariel Sharon.
The daily scenes of Palestinian Houses and well-kept olive groves being destroyed by Israeli Soldiers driving Hugh bulldozers and funerals, now over1000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli Soldiers with the vast majority of them being Palestinian women and children are spread through the Islamic World like wild-fire by today’s Arab Satellite Television stations, have causing the recent increase of violence toward our American Troops in Iraq.
The increase in Violence toward our American Troops in Iraq will only get worse and increase until Ariel Sharon keeps his word to President Bush and immediately stops his very injustice and very violent treatment of the Palestinian People which has caused them extreme suffering and obeys the present cease-fire and really works for peace, which as of today he 100% has lied and is not really doing anything to promote an Israeli and Palestinian Peace
We will never have a victory in Iraq and our American Soldiers will continue to be killed everyday until Ariel Sharon respects and keeps his word to President George W. Bush and really stops lying to the world and calls a REAL cease-fire; and really becomes Abu Mazen's Peace partner!
Dr. Jack Shepard, founder of People for Peace Group, join us by visiting www.shepardusgov.com
Please visit http://www.gush-shalom.org
Here is Uri Avnery's, founder of Gush Shalom story; which he emailed to me, at our People for Peace Web Site.
עברית אחרי אנגלית
A Tale of Two Demonstrations
Uri Avnery
April 30, 2005
The day before yesterday, two demonstrations were held, just a few dozen kilometers apart.
One took place at the Homesh settlement, not far from Jenin. Tens of thousands of settlers and their sympathizers came to demonstrate against the planned evacuation of this settlement. The demonstrators swore to sabotage the decisions of the government and the Knesset. One of them declared that they could be removed only in coffins draped with the national flag.
Hundreds of soldiers and policemen were stationed along the route to protect the demonstrators against all eventualities. The official Voice of Israel radio told its listeners that the traffic police were acting on instructions from the leaders of the Settlements Council.
At the same time, another demonstration took place at Bil'in, west of Ramallah. The inhabitants of that and the neighboring villages, together with Israeli peace activists, demonstrated against the "Separation Fence" that is being put up on their land.
This demonstration was savagely attacked by soldiers and policemen, who assaulted them, beat, injured and arrested them, using old and new weapons. The security people, as the Hebrew expression goes, "had murder in their eyes".
In this area, there is not even the pretense that the Separation Fence serves security purposes. The real aim is evident to anyone visiting the place: to rob Bil'in and the other villages of their land, in order to enlarge the settlement of Kiryat Sefer.
I remember that place from some ten years ago. Then, well-kept olive groves were being expropriated and destroyed by bulldozers. At that time, too, the villagers asked us to protest and try to stop this.
Now, a large town of ultra-orthodox Jews has been built there and is growing rapidly. The Separation Fence will pass close to the last houses of Bil'in and cut the village off from the remainder of its lands. On this land new neighborhoods of Kiryat Sefer will be built. Together with the nearby settlements of Modi'in Ilit and Matitiyahu, this is one of the "settlement blocs" that Israeli governments (whether Likud or Labor) want to annex to Israel, with the blessing of President Bush.
The plan of the villagers was to conduct a peaceful demonstration on the path of the Fence and plant some symbolic olive saplings there. But experience in this area has taught us that one must expect the security forces to react violently. Therefore, only activists who know the conditions and are experienced in dealing with them were asked to take part. We were some 200 Israelis, men and women of all ages. The instructions given in the buses, orally and in writing, were to keep the demonstration strictly non-violent.
We expected the buses to be stopped on the way and were prepared for this eventuality. We were, therefore, quite surprised when we reached the village without incident. Only later did we realize that it was a trap.
In the village, we joined some thousand inhabitants of this and the neighboring villages, men, women and children, and set off together towards the path of the Fence. At the head walked the former Palestinian minister Kadura Fares, the Palestinian presidential candidate Dr. Mustafa al-Barghouty, the Arab members of the Knesset Barakeh, Zakhalkeh and Dahamsheh, the village chiefs and I. We were holding olive branches in our hands, to plant along the path of the Fence. The village youngsters also carried a 50-meter long Palestinian flag. Ahead of us a decorated van was driving slowly, and a Palestinian activist on it announced in Hebrew through a powerful loudspeaker: "This is a peaceful and non-violent demonstration!"
About a kilometer before the path of the Fence, a line of security people stopped us. They wore no insignia, and so we did not know whether they were soldiers or border policemen.
Suddenly, without any warning, a salvo of tear gas grenades was launched at us. Within seconds, we were enveloped by a cloud of white gas, with the thump of bursting grenades coming at us from all directions.
The demonstrators, coughing and choking, dispersed to the two sides. Many of them outflanked the soldiers and continued to move forward over the rocky terrain. They were stopped by a second line and also showered with tear gas.
We, at the head of the demonstration, went on and reached a point about 50 meters from the path of the Fence, when a third line of soldiers attacked us. MK Barakeh had a heated exchange with an officer, and while they were arguing passionately a soldier fired a gas grenade at point blank range between Barakeh's legs. He was slightly wounded in the leg. Another, particularly ferocious soldier took hold of the poster I was holding in my hands - the Gush Shalom sign of the flags of Israel and Palestine - and pushed me savagely, knocking me over.
At other places, the rampage was even worse. Muhammad Hatib, one of the village chiefs, noticed a man who, with his face covered, started to throw stones at the soldiers. He ran towards him, shouting: "We decided not to throw stones! If you want to throw stones, do it in your own village, not ours! What village do you come from, anyway?" The man turned towards him and attacked him, at the same time calling out to his associates, tearing the handkerchief from his face and donning a police cap.
Thus the secret came out and was also documented by the cameras: "Arabized" undercover soldiers had been sent into action. These started throwing stones at the security people in order to provide them with a pretext to attack us. The moment they were uncovered, they turned on the demonstrators nearest to them, drew revolvers and started to arrest them. Later on, when it became clear that the events had been recorded by foreign television crews, the police officially confirmed that throwing stones is the method used by "Arabized" undercover soldiers so as to merge with the crowd.
In the course of the day, more details about the events emerged: this was a unit that had never before been used for such an action: the Prison Service unit "Massada", whose normal job is to suppress mutinies in the prisons. This is an especially savage unit, perhaps the most violent in the country, which was supplied with new means of "riot control". Among others: salt bullets that are designed to cause particularly painful wounds. Muhammad Hatib, the man mentioned above, 30 years old and father of two children, got four bullets in his back: large, swollen, black-blue rings the full width of his back.
These salt bullets were brought to Israel from America at the beginning of the 90s, but until now the army has shrunk from using them, fearing a public outcry. They were tried on us for the first time.
It appears that the army prepared the whole action in advance as a trap. The "Massada" unit tried out its tactics and weapons on this peaceful march of civilians.
The shocking difference between the ways the two demonstrations were treated provides food for thought.
The settlers are openly preparing and trying to paralyze the state, prevent the implementation of the government and Knesset decisions, and, in effect, to overthrow Israeli democracy. But Ariel Sharon and his people call publicly to "embrace them", to "love them" and "view their pain with understanding". This is the directive given to the security forces. For peace activists, quite different treatment is indicated.
This throws light on a much more important phenomenon that may determine the future of Israel. Here, people have got so used to it that they accept it as natural. Abroad, people don't know about it.
The fact is that every day, all the Israeli media devote their main news reports to the settlers' propaganda. Every single news program on each of the three TV channels gives exhaustive coverage to the affairs of the settlers, speeches by settlers and interviews with settlers. Often, these reports fill half the news program.
Between the settlers and the media a kind of symbiosis has come into being - they work "with one head". Every day several events are prepared for the media, which scoop them up greedily, to serve as unpaid propaganda organs of the settlers and the extreme right. Once upon a time, it was usual to give the other side the right of response, for the sake of "balance". Not anymore. There is no other side.
In the news programs, not a word - literally not a word - of criticism of the settlers is ever heard. The establishment "leftists" also speak of the need to "embrace them" and "understand them", and so, of course, do all the spokespersons of the government and the big parties. To people who have an opposite opinion, no opportunity is given to speak about the settlers on the main media of the country.
In this way, Israeli democracy puts all its media exclusively at the disposal of the enemies of democracy. Even in the Weimar Republic, stupidity did not go this far.
Absurd? It only seems so. In reality, it reflects the real situation: in spite of all the loud talk about "disengagement", Sharon's heart is with the settlers. He intends to annex to Israel most of the West Bank settlements - if not all of them.
The present controversy about a handful of small settlements in the Gaza Strip is, in his eyes, a kind of family spat, and will pass quickly. Actually, Sharon might be interested in feeding the commotion, so as to convince the Americans that it is unrealistic to expect him to dismantle the West Bank settlements and outposts. Fact: the army and police have never once used tear gas against right-wing demonstrators, even when physically attacked and injured by them (as happens regularly in Hebron, for example) or when the settlers block vital roads and cause huge traffic jams.
On the other hand, the controversy with us, the peace activists, the real opposition to the government, is a genuine struggle for the future of Israel: whether it will be a state within the Green Line borders, a liberal, democratic state that lives in peace with a viable Palestinian state at its side; or an aggressive, nationalist state, that will hold on to practically the whole of the West Bank and keep the Palestinians in some isolated enclaves.
If one sees it that way, the directives given to the army are quite logical: Embrace the settlers, because they are our brothers, and hit the peace activists, because they are the enemy
I agree with everything you said except, is life being sentient, and the nonhuman animals are just there, or is there more to life? Also I agree with your Schiavo conclusion, humans are meant to be sentient and aware of everything.
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I just have one question. Is it right to let her starve to death? Is it right for her to die from the lack of nutrition? Is it right to make that desision?
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