Tonight I read a good editorial by John Leo, A Regrettable Limit on Life , and was particularly struck by the following paragraph:
"Instead of the traditional emphasis on the sanctity of life, bioethics began to stress the quality of life, meaning that many damaged humans, young and old, don't qualify for personhood because their lives have lost value. The nonpersons should be allowed to die and in some cases be killed. This explains why so few bioethicists have protested what the state and her husband planned for Terri Schiavo, who is severely damaged, but not in pain or dying, not brain dead, and in no position to protest her own execution on grounds that other people consider it best for her. "
"Instead of the traditional emphasis on the sanctity of life, bioethics began to stress the quality of life, meaning that many damaged humans, young and old, don't qualify for personhood because their lives have lost value. The nonpersons should be allowed to die and in some cases be killed. This explains why so few bioethicists have protested what the state and her husband planned for Terri Schiavo, who is severely damaged, but not in pain or dying, not brain dead, and in no position to protest her own execution on grounds that other people consider it best for her. "
I think I would have been impressed in any case but today it was particularly poignant because we stopped in Morioka on the way home to visit a handicapped man we first met in Sapporo 25 years ago when he was a child of 8 and we were (verbally handicapped) language students.
He drives a car, he has a job. On the wall are photos of him sking. We watched a DVD of him Scuba Diving in Okinawa. But in Hitler's Germany he, too, would have been eliminated. A non-person...
With Koji Oya in his home in Morioka
2 comments:
I didn't realize that you were still in touch with the (Sato?) family. It really facinated me that he was anxious to meet you, though. I'm glad you had the chance to see how things turned our for him.
Yes, Koji's mother Mrs. Oya (not Sato) phoned me up last year - after 23 years! She said that I had given her the OMF phone number and told her they would always know where I was.
So Anna and I went down to Iwate to visit her last fall. We are trying to stay in touch now.
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