The right to die

The right to die, and make transit, was the issue that gave rise to Easter. When is a person dead? In Rome, for those crucified, it was a day after their shins had been shattered – which was three or more days after they were nailed and hung.

Crucified, Immanuel was taken down early because Jewish law mandates burial within three days of death – the belief, shared by most cultures, being that a soul is trapped on earth until the body is properly sanctified. (Matt 27:57; John 19:31) Sanctification could not occur on the Sabbath.

Is he alive? That was the question asked of the Centurion. The body was not corrupted, bones were intact, did he react to having his side pierced with a spear? Blood and water came forth – but there was no reaction. The presumption was death.

Today there are more specific, medical sound, methods to determine that the soul has departed a body – persistent vegetative state is the term they use with Terri Schiavo, who is “brain dead” and whose body is functioning with low level autonomic responses.

I have a problem with the religious right– I believe they continually prove themselves controlled by anti-Christ satanic forces. Imagine their position, enunciated by the President while in Arizona, where he asserted that, in extraordinary circumstances such as these it is "wise to always err on the side of life."

Now let’s apply that assumption to Immanuel. Had Bush been making the decision, had religious conservatives been making it, Immanuel would still be hanging. The world would be witness to – not faith, but the reality of – awaiting a day when an incorruption body corrupts.

Medicaid, Medicare, costs increases, economics, budgets – universal health care and the right to die. Bush promised to “stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities.” Aside from cutting support for them, what does he plan to do for them?

This is the same Bush, who proposed budget cuts which would have removed funding for Terri’s feeding tubes and everyone else receiving ongoing maintenance – many of whom, unlike Terri, are factually alive and could recover. This is the same Bush, who as Texas Governor, signed into law a bill which eventually murdered a 6 month old because he suffered from a rare form of dwarfism.

What is the morality? The Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 166, which authorizes the killing of those who are cognizant of what will happen to them? But is that life to Bush – it politics!

Senate Republican majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee – who is a medical doctor – in asserting, "Remember, Terri is alive, Terri is not in a coma." But, for seven years doctors tried to bring her back – tried to find even a glimmer of cognition; for another seven years this matter, court review, and court appointed doctors, concluding there was no cognition – effectively her soul was gone.

The soul! Many religions, the bulk of the world’s population, believe that the soul cannot move on until the body has been sanctified, has been ritually granted closure. If we refuse to let accept the reality and let the body expire – do we trap a soul?

At what point does the trapping of a person inside a shell become cruel and unusual punishment? When are we violating the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution?

If First is correct, than we have determined that a non-criminal can be sentenced to life in solitary confinement within their own body – denied of the ability to communicate. If Constitutional, than why not impose that penalty on criminals? Paralyze them, insert feeding tube and they serve time.

Terri has been “brain dead” for 15 years – short of doctors discovering the technique Immanuel utilized on Lazarus and subsequently taught his Apostles, she is dead; Congress and the President sought to entomb her soul on earth until her shell succumbs to corruption.

Honest Christians have begun to speak out, denouncing the actions of Bush and his minions as the antitheses of their principles: sanctity of the family, sacred bond between spouses, right to make private decisions free of government meddling, and federalism.

As Congressmen should recognize the right of a “soul” to enter this world – as it does when it announces arrival, with a kick, in the second trimester – so should they recognize the “right to die” as the right of a soul to exit when its time comes.

In scripture, birthright comes at birth – all other events of significance are associated with death.

Thankfully U.S. District Court Judge James Whittemore invoked law, as did the Appeals Court – exerting morality’s power over the forces of hypocrisy which now hold sway in Washington. The Supreme Court has declare further appeals flawed and unconstitutional – ideally Terri can rest.

In this, the season of Easter and Passover, we have seen the judgement which fulfilled the visions of Isaiah and Daniel for Immanuel applied to Theresa Marie Schiavo. Her soul’s suffering served to expose those in defiance; an affirmation of her husband’s words, “She will be with the Lord.”

Strangely, as it is with prophecy, it shows us that the Temple Priests, Pontius Pilate and Pharaoh were more divinely attuned than Bush and Frist’s minions will ever be.