This whole thing with Terri Schiavo has gotten me to thinking. It is true that her death will teach us all to make living wills. But there are forces I see working out there that scare the crap out of me. Starvation and dehydration is no doubt a cruel way to die. Even sadder when it is played out on such a national level. I can already see the beginnings of a movement to allow for “mercy killings” aka euthanasia. I know I felt it myself this week as defeat after defeat was handed to the parents of Terri. I found myself thinking, I wish some nurse or doctor would have the guts to give her just that extra bit of morphine to end it all for her now. But we can not start down that road! A society that does not value life will not last long. If anything, Terri’s slow, painful death should teach us something about where our society is headed if we don’t act now.
Yesterday it was abortions, killing the unborn before they have a chance to defend themselves. Today, a handful of judges are killing Terri because her estranged husband says she would have wanted to die. I can already see a nation ripe for the return of Dr. Kevorkian and his “painless” death. I mean, after watching Terri’s struggle, who hasn’t thought, what an awful thing to do to a person? Who hasn’t considered that we put dogs down in a more humane way than this woman has been treated? The truth is, if we let ourselves start with the mercy killing of people like Terri, who’s next?
I am pro-life. Obviously. Pro-life doesn’t mean just anti-abortion as so many journalists have tried to label us. It means pro-life! Terri’s case has saddened my heart. I’ve called for investigating the hubby and learning why he wants her to die so badly. I also want every judge connected with this case to be brought before congress to answer for why they felt they were above the law. Congress, the people we elect to represent our wishes, ordered a new trial. They ordered that Terri be kept alive until a new trial take place. Judge Greer, and the rest all the way up to Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court disobeyed the law by refusing to allow food and water be given to Terri. The courts were NEVER meant to be the final authority. They took that role on themselves sometime back in the 60s and 70s. There are a series of checks and balances throughout our system. Congress, the President, and the courts are the three branches of our government, each meant to keep the other in check. The President appoints judges, the congress has authority of deciding the jurisdiction of each court, and the court is meant to interpret the constitution and enforce the laws created by the President and the Congress. Last time I checked, the constitution said we all had the right to Life, not the right to kill another person because suddenly 7 years after the fact we think we remembered a conversation where the person said they may not have wanted to live on life support.
It all comes back to this. We can not let ourselves be tricked into thinking euthanasia is good. If anything, we must take action to prevent this from happening again! We can do this by electing a congress and a president that will appoint and approve judges who will value life and obey the laws given to them by the congress. Its up to us. Our votes do matter. We’ve got the president who has been trying to get good judges approved ever since he took office the first time. What we’ve got now are a few pissed democrats in congress who have changed the rules. It only takes 51 votes to approve a judge. It takes 60 to break a filibuster. Never before in the history of congress has a filibuster been used to block a judical appointment. Now we hear this talk of the republicans enacting the “nuclear option” of changing the rules of the filibuster as it applies to judicial nominees. The Truth is, it’s the Dems who changed the rules. It’s the Dems who aren’t letting our elected President fulfill his duty of appointing judges. The republicans are just trying to restore the status quo.
We can help! Our votes will count. We Americans need to be informed, and we need to vote in the next election.