By Doug Newman

March 27, 2005 

Early last week, my computer was hit by a killer-tsunami-bubonic-plague of a virus. Hence, my weighing in on whether Terri Schiavo should live or die was delayed. This episode has generated more cyber-traffic than any since 9-11. Herewith are four basic observations.

1. By pulling the plug on Terri Schiavo, we are subjecting her to a horribly gruesome death. If you let a dog starve to death you would be arrested and prosecuted. When Tim McVeigh, who partook in killing 168 innocent people, was executed, he received a lethal injection, and it was all over in two minutes. Ms. Schiavo has no such luxury.
2. Michael Schiavo, Terri’s scumbag husband, says Mrs. Schiavo would have wished for the plug to be pulled. How can anyone believe this? Instead of staying by her side for all these years, Michael Schiavo has gone off to ho with another woman and has two children by her. Would he, if put on the spot, maintain that Terri would have “wished” for this?
3. Absent a living will, I cannot play God. I cannot authorize pulling that plug. When outsiders start deciding which life is worthy and which life is not, we start descending down that slippery slope into Nazi Germany and Communist China. In those two societies, the disabled were relegated to the status of “useless eaters.”
4. Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo need to by arrested and prosecuted on charges of being accessories to murder.

So there you have it. So much has been said that I do not have a lot to add at this point. Be on the lookout for my take on all those little miscreants who have been “guarding” the hospice suburban Tampa hospice where Terri Schiavo, an innocent woman, just may die before this hits the web.

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Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman

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