[I'm past being shocked by what commonly occurs in a country founded on Judeo-Christian values and principles. However, this is nothing but wanton savagry...where are those who continually cry "foul!" in defense of the oppressed, the helpless, the weak?]
Mr. Schiavo & Adultery
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http://www.touchstonemag.com
From a reader re: "Is Terry Schiavo Less Than a Junkyard Dog?" (See the post below):
Just one little note on the Schiavo case, which I have not followed closely until recently. The article mentions that the husband is "openly adulterous." Just consider for a moment how different the case might look if adultery were illegal as until a generation ago it was nearly everywhere. It would be much harder to defend him as a viable guardian if he were a criminal!
Isn't this exactly the sort of case that prompted repeal of adultery laws? How cruel and heartless of society (it was said) to make it a crime for a man whose wife is permanently incapacitated to seek a little satisfaction elsewhere. Yet the effect is that a man in a sexual relationship with another woman can still claim the rights of a husband with respect to his legal wife.
I have long found it curious that so few conservatives publicly call for the reinstatement of adultery laws, because to me there is a clear "seamless garment" argument to be made connecting the legalization of adultery with the decline of marriage (indeed it's more obvious than the problem with "gay" marriage). Personally I would favor making adultery a low-grade misdemeanor. This case well illustrates the unintended consequences that can flow from supposedly compassionate law.
Posted by James M. Kushiner at 06:33 PM Permalink TrackBack (1)
Is Terry Schiavo Less Than a Junkyard Dog?
That's a shocking title, I admit, but Julianne Loesch Wiley, who has written for Touchstone and led a workshop at our conference on the family last fall, takes up the cause for Terry Schiavo in a broadcast e-mail message:
I would not permit a convicted criminal, a captured terrorist, or a junkyard dog to die of starvation/dehydration. I don't think you would, either. If I am right about this, please click here.
Maybe you already know a great deal about Terri Schiavo and her parent's struggle to establish her most basic human right of all: the right to simply go on living.
I have been studying this situation carefully over the last 2 or 3 years, and I have come to the conclusion--- as have many human rights advocates familiar with the facts --- that the ONLY course of action now open to save Terri Schiavo's life -- yes, really, the ONLY one ---- is to obtain the removal of Judge George Greer from the bench.
I realize that that's a shocking step, but we have reached this shocking extreme: Judge Greer has not merely permitted, he has ORDERED that an innocent 41-year-old disabled woman be killed by starvation/dehydration, with the total removal of food and water to commence on March 18 at 1:00 p.m.
And Judge Greer has denied, WITHOUT ACCESS TO HEARING, motions filed by Terri Schiavo's immediate family for MRI tests to prove that she is not "brain dead" and would benefit from rehabilitation; and motions to replace her estranged and openly adulterous husband Michael as her guardian. (He has refused her any therapy for years, and has spent her rehabilitation funds to pay lawyers to obtain her death.)
The link she provides above is to a site of a petition calling for the impeachment of the judge in question. It makes for sobering, compelling reading.
I remind readers of something posted yesterday and reported by someone who visited Terry Schiavo not too long ago:
"When we were preparing to leave, ... Terri was visibly upset [her family members] were leaving. She almost appeared to be trying to cling to them. ... She was definitely not in a coma, not even close. This visit certainly shed more light for me on why the Schindlers are fighting so hard to protect her; to get her medical care and rehabilitative assistance, and to spend all they have to protect her life."
—Barbara Weller, writing on "A Visit With Terri Schiavo," in the Winter 2005 issue of Lifeline
Really: would any judge tolerate the death penalty being executed upon a convicted death row inmate by starving him to death? If that's cruel and unusual punishment for a murderer, what about doing it to Terry Schiavo? A judge like that should have to look Terry Schiavo in the face daily while she wastes away without food and water until she dies. Reagardless, she will have to look God in the face and explain why she allowed, nay, ordered that this be done to Terry Schiavo.
Posted by James M. Kushiner at 01:26 PM Permalink TrackBack (0)
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