The Death of Terri Schiavo: An Epilogue, by Daniel Eisenberg

Daniel Eisenberg, M.D., responds to another doctor who thinks Eisenberg's regard for severely disabled people is archaic and misguided:

Given a choice between the enlightened ethics of my correspondent and the "archaic" ethics of Jewish law, I really see no choice. He is not the first educated person to announce to the world that traditional ethics are passe. But throughout history, the cheapening of life has inevitably led to the deaths of innocent people. Whether it is a communist nation that devalues the intellectuals or ethnic groups that cheapen the lives of their rivals, in every instance the beginning of the end is the concerted attempt to convince the population that some lives just don't matter.

I can only hope that if you or I wind up in a medical facility, we draw a Dr. Eisenberg instead of someone like the other fellow. The other fellow, you see, thinks he can and should decide when to declare someone else a person. Once he culls you from the human race in his own mind, you're not to be fed any more.

It's scary stuff, but Eisenberg tackles it head on.

This article appears on www.aish.com, and was published April 10, 2005.