Disabled or Dead?

[Edited Blog]

Does this sound like the actions of a loving husband? And if so would you give your life and death decision if married to a man like this purely because he is your husband?

This is Michael Schiavo's demonstration of love towards his wife:

Denied her speech, swallowing, and other rehabilitation therapy;
Denied her parents visitation with Terri for as long as five months at a time;
Had her two cats euthanized in preparation to move in with his girlfriend who had a dog;
Admitted in a deposition that he took Terris engagement and wedding rings and made them into jewelry for himself;
Brought girlfriends to Terris bedside;
Refused to permit doctors to give Terri antibiotics when she developed a urinary tract infection;
Refused to have her teeth cleaned for several years and five had to be pulled as a result; and
Refused to have her wheelchair fixed and permit Terri to be taken outside.

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When man sets himself up in law apart from that of God's law, tyranny always rules. Which is why we have millions of unborn babies murdered because the law says its legal. And why the case of Terry Schiavo was allowed to end as it did. And why, the vulnerable in society whether the unborn, the elderly or the infirm, will always have their rights taken away from them. Tyranny has to end with people doing so. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

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Terry Schavo revisited: In the wake of her death

if anyone had have asked me, as an epileptic with severe brain dysfunction in earlier life, if at any point in time, you are physically incapacitated, will you want to live as a disabled person, or do you want to set it down in writing that you want to be allowed to die, or even actively helped to die, my answer would have been resoundingly, "heck yes. Life is bad enough as it is. Any worse would be unbearable, let me out of here."

We can all make decisions about what we think we would do, what we think would be best for us, in a certain given situation where the situation is a hypothesis rather than a reality. Are we so blind as to think, that every disabled person who has ever thought they would rather die than be disabled, does not now as a disabled person live a happy, fulfilled life in a way they had never imagined possible from the vantage point of being Able-bodied?


Doctors need to re-evaluate the disabled community. And not base their decisions on when it is the right time to end a persons life be influenced by the fact that they are disabled. The disabled community themselves should have a say in these matters and the decisions which so affect them. A statistic that cannot be cured, and therefore costs money to keep alive and yet will not be able to contribute in the way someone able to work with no limitations can, is no reason for anyone to make a life-ending decision.. Statistics, financial or otherwise should not de-evaluate a persons life.

The Hippocratic oath says: Full text

"I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."

Preserve being the optimal word here. And I will NOT play God, which is exactly what is done when hastening someone's death.

If someone is not terminally ill and will not die within a short amount of time, what gives anyone else the right to decide that that patient has made a decision to die? If a living will exists yet was made under very different conditions to the ones they now find themselves in whose to be sure the reality of living as a disabled person rather than the hypothetical scenario it once was still holds the same meaning? We can all imagine scenarios, we cannot have a real grasp of anything unless or until we experience it first-hand.

if someone had have asked me in my 20's, what I wanted to do with my life, while perfectly physically able-bodied, the answer would have been to "end it ASAP" If someone asks me now, from the perspective of a chronically ill and severely disabled person, the answer is to not waste another hour that I don't have to. Go with what I've got, and live it all to the glory of God. He will know when my life is no longer worth sustaining, and won't need men's intervention to end it for me.

Terry Schiavo made her statement which her life-ending decision was based upon, when the scenario to her was hypothetical. She died, on the basis of a hypothesis. Is that how any of us should live or die?
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Posted by A Crazy Calvinist to Ponderizations of a crazy Calvinist--Blagging For England at 3/31/2005 07:34:00 AM |