Let me begin by saying that I could have put this thread in the Law and Justice forum. I posted it in this forum after deciding the premise is more about ethics than it is about law or religion.
The heart wrenching tragedy of Jahi McMath is worse than most life-support stories because all-powerful doctors and hospitals did it too her. You can be certain the tragedy will be compounded after the culture of death crowd marshals it forces the courts, the mainstream media, the brain dead lobby and the euthanasia crowd. They will all line up to end Jahis life. Brain dead is always the justification:
The culture of death pins the success of its agenda on brain dead. There is much about brain dead that always troubled me. Long before I knew that the Bible . . . defines life as being in the blood . . . I said there is a false belief that says thoughts, emotions, feelings, etc. originate in the brain. Ive never been convinced that that is the case. When you cut your finger an impulse is sent to the brain telling you to feel the pain in your finger. The paralyzing fear a person feels in the pit of their stomach as their car skids towards an oncoming truck doesnt originate in the brain. So who can deny that thoughts are only processed by the brain originating elsewhere as in pain or fear?
The brain is a processor and doesnt feel pain. Even if it can be shown beyond a doubt that there is pain when the brain is not functioning the answer is painkillers not euthanasia.
Incidentally, those who would kill the brain dead always say the patient is not feeling pain.
NOTE: Sci-fi myth says that computers (machines) will someday be capable of original thought. Not only is it nonsense it is political propaganda. Computers are processors. They function like a brain. Computers are silent until someone sends them instructions. The artificial intelligence mavens will have to prove that a computer is feeling physical pain before they convince me they know what they are talking about.
In the unlikely event a court orders the hospital to keep Jahi McMath alive at the hospitals expense you can bet that the euthanasia crowd will be screaming about the government interfering in our lives. Of course, it is not government interference when a judge orders the removal of a feeding tube.
How can anyone say that brain dead also excludes the pleasure and curiosity that triggers giggles in an infant? The euthanasia crowd will never admit to that possibility because they only speak for themselves. They assume that because they dont want to live in a so-called vegetative state no one else does either.
What Im trying to say is that a vegetative state is a physical thing with no proof that thoughts and emotions arent alive and well somewhere else. The Chinese always thought that the liver was the most important organ. Christians assigned courage and cowardliness to the heart: He has the heart of a lion or Hes fainthearted. To me that shows that there has always been a suspicion that thoughts and emotions reside someplace other than the brain. I never heard of any great body of thought that put the brain at the center of life. Those who believe in euthanasia are the only ones making that claim. I dont consider their ideology a great body of thought.
Lets take a look at euthanasias connection to totalitarianism.
Conquerors throughout history were totalitarians. For the most part they conquered and enslaved the vanquished. The conquered treated as spoils of war is pretty much a thing of the past. Totalitarians have accepted cheap labor as the inevitable substitute for slavery. Cheap labor is so plentiful it forced totalitarians to take an approach other than conquest in their drive to control life and the Earths resources. When slavery began to disappear totalitarians flirted with the pseudo-science of eugenics. Now theyve moved their efforts to euthanasia. Euthanasia is an incremental step toward resurrecting eugenics.
As in everything else, there is never a shortage of misguided sign-carriers willing to demonstrate against their own best interests life itself.
The law
The person who actually pulls the plug commits murder. Let me explain with a slightly edited excerpt from a message I posted about Terri Schiavo back in March of 2005:
Everything I said about Terri Schiavo can be applied to Jahi McMath.
NOTE: Under no circumstances should a free people ever give their government the authority to kill for humane reasons. Governments begin with whatever is fashionable brain dead in Americas case and end with killing the physically and mentally impaired. Fashionable abortion is already evolving into killing children in the Netherlands. Quality of life replaces brain dead as justification. Thats why Ive always said the Nazi occupation in WWII was the last good thing to happen in Holland.
Let me close with a bit of gallows humor:
Parts of the human body had a meeting to decide who was in charge.
"I should be in charge," said the brain, "because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."
"I should be in charge," said the blood, "because I circulate oxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away."
"I should be in charge," said the stomach," because I process food and give all of you energy."
"I should be in charge," said the legs, "because I carry the body wherever it needs to go."
"I should be in charge," said the eyes, "because I allow the body to see where it goes."
"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "Because I'm responsible for waste removal."
All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him; so in a huff he shut down tight.
Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the blood was toxic. They quickly decided that the rectum should be the boss.
The heart wrenching tragedy of Jahi McMath is worse than most life-support stories because all-powerful doctors and hospitals did it too her. You can be certain the tragedy will be compounded after the culture of death crowd marshals it forces the courts, the mainstream media, the brain dead lobby and the euthanasia crowd. They will all line up to end Jahis life. Brain dead is always the justification:
The culture of death pins the success of its agenda on brain dead. There is much about brain dead that always troubled me. Long before I knew that the Bible . . . defines life as being in the blood . . . I said there is a false belief that says thoughts, emotions, feelings, etc. originate in the brain. Ive never been convinced that that is the case. When you cut your finger an impulse is sent to the brain telling you to feel the pain in your finger. The paralyzing fear a person feels in the pit of their stomach as their car skids towards an oncoming truck doesnt originate in the brain. So who can deny that thoughts are only processed by the brain originating elsewhere as in pain or fear?
The brain is a processor and doesnt feel pain. Even if it can be shown beyond a doubt that there is pain when the brain is not functioning the answer is painkillers not euthanasia.
Incidentally, those who would kill the brain dead always say the patient is not feeling pain.
NOTE: Sci-fi myth says that computers (machines) will someday be capable of original thought. Not only is it nonsense it is political propaganda. Computers are processors. They function like a brain. Computers are silent until someone sends them instructions. The artificial intelligence mavens will have to prove that a computer is feeling physical pain before they convince me they know what they are talking about.
In the unlikely event a court orders the hospital to keep Jahi McMath alive at the hospitals expense you can bet that the euthanasia crowd will be screaming about the government interfering in our lives. Of course, it is not government interference when a judge orders the removal of a feeding tube.
How can anyone say that brain dead also excludes the pleasure and curiosity that triggers giggles in an infant? The euthanasia crowd will never admit to that possibility because they only speak for themselves. They assume that because they dont want to live in a so-called vegetative state no one else does either.
What Im trying to say is that a vegetative state is a physical thing with no proof that thoughts and emotions arent alive and well somewhere else. The Chinese always thought that the liver was the most important organ. Christians assigned courage and cowardliness to the heart: He has the heart of a lion or Hes fainthearted. To me that shows that there has always been a suspicion that thoughts and emotions reside someplace other than the brain. I never heard of any great body of thought that put the brain at the center of life. Those who believe in euthanasia are the only ones making that claim. I dont consider their ideology a great body of thought.
Lets take a look at euthanasias connection to totalitarianism.
Conquerors throughout history were totalitarians. For the most part they conquered and enslaved the vanquished. The conquered treated as spoils of war is pretty much a thing of the past. Totalitarians have accepted cheap labor as the inevitable substitute for slavery. Cheap labor is so plentiful it forced totalitarians to take an approach other than conquest in their drive to control life and the Earths resources. When slavery began to disappear totalitarians flirted with the pseudo-science of eugenics. Now theyve moved their efforts to euthanasia. Euthanasia is an incremental step toward resurrecting eugenics.
As in everything else, there is never a shortage of misguided sign-carriers willing to demonstrate against their own best interests life itself.
The law
The person who actually pulls the plug commits murder. Let me explain with a slightly edited excerpt from a message I posted about Terri Schiavo back in March of 2005:
Everything I said about Terri Schiavo can be applied to Jahi McMath.
NOTE: Under no circumstances should a free people ever give their government the authority to kill for humane reasons. Governments begin with whatever is fashionable brain dead in Americas case and end with killing the physically and mentally impaired. Fashionable abortion is already evolving into killing children in the Netherlands. Quality of life replaces brain dead as justification. Thats why Ive always said the Nazi occupation in WWII was the last good thing to happen in Holland.
Let me close with a bit of gallows humor:
Parts of the human body had a meeting to decide who was in charge.
"I should be in charge," said the brain, "because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."
"I should be in charge," said the blood, "because I circulate oxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away."
"I should be in charge," said the stomach," because I process food and give all of you energy."
"I should be in charge," said the legs, "because I carry the body wherever it needs to go."
"I should be in charge," said the eyes, "because I allow the body to see where it goes."
"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "Because I'm responsible for waste removal."
All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him; so in a huff he shut down tight.
Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the blood was toxic. They quickly decided that the rectum should be the boss.
The moral of the story?
The asshole is usually in charge!
The asshole is usually in charge!
