No Comparison to Nazi Germany
(Letter to the Lake Charles American Press in answer to a letter printed responding to my letter on Terri Schiavo)
Dear editor:
While I can understand the viewpoint and personal feelings of Tommy Curtis about the Terri Schiavo case in his April 18 letter to the editor, I must disagree with some of his methodology and conclusions.
I feel very strongly that the action by our representatives in Washington, who rushed to judgment with a religious fervor and their own misleading diagnosis, had no interest in faith, fairness, or constitutional authority, but rather for political advantage. Mr. Delay’s after the fact rantings and threats against our highest judiciary only confirms that suspicion. It definitely was a last minute (after 15 years of inactivity) rush to judgment. In addition, our Congress is a national body and is not allowed to pass a law that benefits or detracts from a single individual. (Yes, I know there is always the Congressional Medal of Honor that benefits an individual.)
To be exact Mrs. Schiavo, whether we like it or not, was in an irreversible vegetative state, as attested to by many specialists who had personally examined and tested her over that 15 year period. I feel that the moral correctness and profound view of life that you speak of, and I respect whole heartedly, had long since left Mrs. Schiavo without what we call “life” or “soul,” and was now just a human shell that happened to still be there. No one murdered Mrs. Schiavo.
Your drawing a parallel between Mrs. Schiavo’s case and Bishop, later Cardinal, Clemons August Graf von Galen, I feel is completely unwarranted and in error. The brave Bishop who spoke out against the terrors of National Socialism, not only in 1941 but throughout the war, did so against a system that butchered its citizens with castrations, unnecessary operations, and even killings of those who did not “measure up” due to so called physical infirmities, mental illness, sexual orientation, etc. These were done in coordination between the governing body and the judiciary of Nazi Germany. Medical knowledge, life, and a “worldview” had nothing to do with these decisions, and were done on people who had both life and soul. They were not like Mrs. Schiavo. In addition, if you are trying to compare this case, which I hope you are not, with the horrors perpetrated by Nazism that massacred 6,000,000 because of their religion, then you are way off base. Bishop von Galen spoke out about these also and it is amazing that he lived through the war. I personally have studied and traveled to these many killing sites, Auschweitz, Birkenau, Sobibor, Chelmno, Majdanek, and the Warsaw Ghetto fields, and there is absolutely no comparison of “worldview.”
Mrs. Schiavo is a very sad case, but the politicization of her death is even sadder. May she rest in peace.
Dear editor:
While I can understand the viewpoint and personal feelings of Tommy Curtis about the Terri Schiavo case in his April 18 letter to the editor, I must disagree with some of his methodology and conclusions.
I feel very strongly that the action by our representatives in Washington, who rushed to judgment with a religious fervor and their own misleading diagnosis, had no interest in faith, fairness, or constitutional authority, but rather for political advantage. Mr. Delay’s after the fact rantings and threats against our highest judiciary only confirms that suspicion. It definitely was a last minute (after 15 years of inactivity) rush to judgment. In addition, our Congress is a national body and is not allowed to pass a law that benefits or detracts from a single individual. (Yes, I know there is always the Congressional Medal of Honor that benefits an individual.)
To be exact Mrs. Schiavo, whether we like it or not, was in an irreversible vegetative state, as attested to by many specialists who had personally examined and tested her over that 15 year period. I feel that the moral correctness and profound view of life that you speak of, and I respect whole heartedly, had long since left Mrs. Schiavo without what we call “life” or “soul,” and was now just a human shell that happened to still be there. No one murdered Mrs. Schiavo.
Your drawing a parallel between Mrs. Schiavo’s case and Bishop, later Cardinal, Clemons August Graf von Galen, I feel is completely unwarranted and in error. The brave Bishop who spoke out against the terrors of National Socialism, not only in 1941 but throughout the war, did so against a system that butchered its citizens with castrations, unnecessary operations, and even killings of those who did not “measure up” due to so called physical infirmities, mental illness, sexual orientation, etc. These were done in coordination between the governing body and the judiciary of Nazi Germany. Medical knowledge, life, and a “worldview” had nothing to do with these decisions, and were done on people who had both life and soul. They were not like Mrs. Schiavo. In addition, if you are trying to compare this case, which I hope you are not, with the horrors perpetrated by Nazism that massacred 6,000,000 because of their religion, then you are way off base. Bishop von Galen spoke out about these also and it is amazing that he lived through the war. I personally have studied and traveled to these many killing sites, Auschweitz, Birkenau, Sobibor, Chelmno, Majdanek, and the Warsaw Ghetto fields, and there is absolutely no comparison of “worldview.”
Mrs. Schiavo is a very sad case, but the politicization of her death is even sadder. May she rest in peace.
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 6:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home