|
Reconsidering
Old
Dogmas
--
Part
Two
Part
One
So
much
of
everyday
life,
not
to
mention
science,
is
at
war
with
the
mindset
of
the
anti-lifer
set
that
it's
a
full-time
job
for
them
to
obscure
the
truth
and
calm
an
increasingly
skeptical
public.
This
is
done
in
interesting--and
increasingly
inadequate--ways.
First,
they
dishonestly
insist
that
their
current
barbarism
is
as
far
as
they
will
take
their
inhumanity.
"Here
and
no
farther,"
write
Eric
Cohen
and
Robert
George,
referring
to
the
treatment
of
human
embryos
as
research
fodder.
"
But,
of
course,
before
you
can
blink
your
eyes,
"And
then
they
seek
to
go
farther,
in
the
name
of
'progress.'"
Second,
the
anti-life
set
insists
that
life-affirming
outcomes
are
always
unique.
They
are
one
of a
kind,
with
no
wider
application,
certainly
nothing
that
challenges
the
way
they
see
the
world.
Take
Terry
Wallis.
We
talked
about
Mr.
Wallis'
wonderful
recovery
on
Wednesday.
http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/July06/nv070506.html.
In a
nutshell,
Mr.
Wallis
was
said
to
be
in a
"minimally
conscience
state"
for
19
years,
following
an
accident
in
1984.
Then
he
spoke
his
first
word
in
2003:
"Mom."
Soon,
Mr.
Wallis
was
talking.
Without
rehashing
the
entire
fascinating
story,
the
bottom
line
is
that
doctors
who
carefully
examined
his
case
believe
his
brain
rewired
itself.
What/how
it
took
place
is
still
a
mystery.
"The
daily
exercises,
the
interactions
with
his
parents,
his
regular
dose
of
antidepressant
medication:
any
or
all
of
these
might
have
spurred
brain
cells
to
grow
more
connections,
the
researchers
said,"
according
to
the
New
York
Times.
That's
the
good,
make
that
great
news.
The
downside
is,
as
you
would
expect,
there
is
the
attempt
to
make
sure
no
one
thinks
this
has
anything
to
do
with
people
like
Terri
Schindler
Schiavo,
who
was
starved
and
dehydrated
to
death
last
year.
Writing
on
Townhall.com,
Terence
Jeffrey
quotes
from
a
report
on CBS
Evening
News:
"Now
this
discovery
will
change
the
way
doctors
think
about
patients
in
the
so-called
minimally
conscious
state.
But
it
won't
affect
all
patients,
like
Terri
Schiavo,
who
was
in a
kind
of
coma
known
as a
persistent
vegetative
state."
He
could
have
offered
many
other
examples
of
naysayers.
Instead
Mr.
Jeffrey
dug
deeper.
For
example,
he
wrote
about
Donald
Herbert.
Mr.
Herbert,
a
New
York
state
firefighter,
went
into
a
"decade-long
stupor"
in
1995.
In
April
2005,
Herbert
"suddenly
began
talking
again"
after
his
doctor
"treated
him
with
a
drug
cocktail."
According
to
Jeffrey,
Dr.
Jamil
Ahmed
told
the
New
York
Times
his
patient's
pre-recovery
condition
had
been
"close
to
the
persistent
vegetative
state"
(PVS).
NBC's
"Today
Show,"
like
many
others,
clung
to
the
PVS
diagnosis.
It
is
the
bright
line,
they
insist,
the
one
that
once
crossed
over
means
virtually
no
chance
for
recovery.
Jeffrey
quotes
from
the
program:
"Neurologists
who
examined
Terri
Schiavo
say
her
case
was
different,
that
she
was
in
something
called
a
persistent
vegetative
state,
from
which
there
is
almost
no
chance
of
recovery."
Really?
What's
particularly
fascinating
about
examples
of "miraculous
recovery"
is,
according
to
Dr.
Nicholas
Schiff,
who
co-authored
the
Journal
of
Clinical
Investigation
(JCI)
study
of
Wallis'
case,
that
"[N]one
of
them
--
not
one
--
has
ever
been
followed
up
scientifically
until
now."
Indeed
Dr.
Steven
Laureys,
a
Belgian
neurologist,
who
co-authored
a
commentary
in
JCI
that
accompanied
the
study,
told
the
Los
Angeles
Times,
"It
obliges
us
to
reconsider
old
dogmas."
It
can
not
be
emphasized
too
strenuously
how
important
those
seven
words
are.
Old
dogmas
have
kept
the
American
people's
innate
decency
largely
bottled
up.
And
the
faster
these
example
of
what
"everyone
knows"
are
reconsidered
and
exposed
for
the
myths
that
they
are,
the
sooner
will
come
the
day
when
the
most
vulnerable
among
us
are
treated
with
the
justice,
mercy,
and
dignity
that
they
deserve.
If
you
have
any
questions
or
comments,
please
write
Dave
Andrusko
at
dandrusko@nrlc.org.
Part
One |
