Posted by
Mike on Monday, January 17, 2011 1:32:32 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
The upgrading of Gabby Giffords' condition from critical to serious
is a sign of hope. If she remains severely disabled, as others who have
had similar injuries are, it will only reignite the debate over when
government leaders have a duty to act in protecting the lives of
citizens who are being forced into euthanasia.
In some ways, it is poetic justice that Gabby was shot by a deranged
killer, because she supported and voted for Obamacare which is already
proving to be a death sentence for many other sick, elderly and disabled
Americans by Obama's extrajudicial death panels pursuant to Obamacare
regulations. It's not that Gabby was unaware of this contradiction,
because hundreds of vigilant Tea Party proponents brought this to her
attention during her reelection campaign.
In looking back five years ago at the case of Terri Schiavo who was
forced to undergoing a slow and painful death by starvation and
dehydration because of government abuse of power and failure to act, does there remain any glimmer of hope?
Over the fifteen years after the incident that caused her to become
disabled, Terri was given inadequate medical attention and deprived of
rehabilitation because her husband Michael Schiavo wanted her to die and
so petitioned the court to have her cut off from food and water, and
himself prevented her from receiving any rehabilitative therapy.
The state of Florida with Jeb Bush as governor did succeed in getting
her feeding tube reinstated pending the outcome of the appeals process.
The Florida Supreme Court then affirmed her death sentence by the trial
court judge using as their rationale the separation of powers between
legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
At that point, President George W. Bush acting as Commander in Chief
could have issued an executive order directing federal marshals to go
into Florida and bring Terri to a hospital or nursing home in another
state where she could have received proper medical treatment and care.
There exists lots of precedents for executive action to secure the civil
rights of Americans, and if ever a person was denied civil rights in
America, Terri was. If Florida then chose to appeal, this would have
allowed the US Supreme Court to rule on the issue of life and death
giving them an additional chance to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
President Bush however was weak and vacillating, choosing to allow the
case to proceed through federal court while he focused his attention on
alleged civil rights violations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Needless to
say, pro-life appeals to the US Supreme Court went unheeded.
Hopefully some good will come out of the Tucson tragedy by reminding
Americans that people with severe disabilities including Gabby Giffords,
even though she supported Obamacare, have basic fundamental rights to
life, dignity, food, water, and basic health care regardless of what the
extent of their disabilities may be. Let's use this unfortunate event
in Tucson to prevent another serious tragedy like the murder of Terri
Schiavo in 2005.