Thursday, March 24, 2005

T-4: The American Version

I am not a brilliant person. I am not a rocket scientist. I'm not a goody-two-shoes or a self-righteous old biddy. My SAT scores were average. I am merely a person. A person with a brain, and a heart, and a soul, and most days I try to use them all.

I raised two children. I fed them, and they grew. If I had not fed them, they would have died. And I would have killed them, by withholding food from them. Some days, my children were not exactly as I would have wished them to be. I fed them anyway. Some days, they were ill, and completely incapable of taking care of themselves. I fed them anyway. If I had withheld food from them, I would have killed them.

I have a feeble, elderly cat. I feed him, and he is alive because of that. If I stopped feeding him, he would die. And it would be my fault, for withholding food from him.

I try to raise house plants. Usually, I forget to feed them. They die. They die, and it is my fault, because I withheld food from them.

We used to have a big iguana in a tank. We did feed him, but he refused to eat anything we gave him. Eventually, he died, because he was withholding food from himself.

I know that in order to sustain life, a person must be given nourishment.

And I know that if nourishment is withheld, that person will die. And whoever withheld the nourishment from that person, would be the cause of that person's death.

By definition, one who deliberately causes the death of another, is a killer. A killer is a murderer. A murderer is a criminal. Criminals belong in prison.

To deliberately deprive a person of life, is to murder.

Why does it make a difference whether this life-taking is done with a gun, a knife, a fist, a vial of poison, a lethal injection, an electric chair, a rope, or a signature on a piece of paper?

To deliberately deprive a life form of sustenance, is to kill. This holds true no matter what kind of life form is involved.

This is not the same thing as "pulling the plug" on a person who is no longer able to sustain life on his/her own, ie machines are doing all the brain/body's functions because the brain/body itself is no longer able to do them.

A body that is still functioning on its own, deprived of food and water, will soon cease to function. Yours will, mine will, anybody's will.

Who among us is willing to be the one to decide who shall live and who shall die, by feeding only those whose lives have merit enough, as defined by a judge?