PRO-DEATH MOVEMENT

Another solid piece from The American Thinker:

The death of Terri Schiavo, caused by starvation and dehydration, is only the latest manifestation of a trend which has been building for a long time. In 1977, in an address entitled "The Slide to Auschwitz," given to the American Academy of Pediatrics, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. stated that he saw "the progression from abortion to infanticide, to euthanasia, to the problems that developed in Nazi Germany..."

At the time of Dr. Koop's comments, the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade was only four years old, and approximately 4 million legal abortions had been performed in the United States. Now, twenty-eight years later, over 45 million babies have been killed through legal abortion in the U.S.

The acceptance by society of the killing of unborn babies has had a tremendous impact on the deterioration of our view of the sanctity of life, and this lack of respect for life has not been limited to the unborn. In 1982, a baby known only as "Baby Doe" was born with Down Syndrome in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to Down Syndrome, Baby Doe was born with a connection between the esophagus and windpipe, which prevented food from reaching the stomach.

A routine operation could have corrected the problem involving the esophagus, but because the baby had Down Syndrome, the parents refused to allow the operation, choosing instead to starve the baby to death, which the Supreme Court of Indiana ruled they had a right to do. Many families offered to adopt the baby; however, the parents refused, and the child died seven days after birth.

Now we have witnessed the starvation and dehydration death of the adult Terri Schiavo. Terri was brain damaged; she was not brain dead. She was not on artificial life support; she needed only to be provided food and water. Terri's parents offered, in fact begged, to be allowed to care for their daughter. Her husband Michael refused, choosing instead to have the feeding tubes removed. The courts ruled that he had the right to do this, and 13 days later, Terri was dead.

Baby Doe and Terri Schiavo were both guilty only of being handicapped. They were living lives that someone else decided were not worth living. (full article)