One Step Beyond Roe V Wade

In Roe V Wade, the state was in a relatively neutral position, neither advocating abortions nor preventing it (not considering Federal funding of some Planned Parenthood programs). The state simply permitted mothers and doctors to carry out abortions without fear of criminal prosecution. In Terri Schiavo’s case, however, the state went a step beyond its "neutral" position in Roe V. Wade and ordered the execution of the disabled through a court-ordered starvation, the removal of Terri’s feeding tube.

In both cases, the state found “just” cause in favoring the strong over the weak. In Roe, V. Wade, it was the woman’s right to privacy; in Terri’s case it was the husband’s right of custody. In both cases, there is a denial of a basic right to life. An unborn fetus has no rights, and neither does a “vegetative” human being. Human rights are only for those who are capable of living life as defined by the experts and the judges. In Roe V Wade, the state hides behind "saving the life of the mother", and in Terri's case, it hides behind "right to die."

All attempts to stop the denial of life to those persons have failed. The judges and justices struck down every attempt to save life as “unconstitutional.” The judges and justices can nullify any law by that simple decree of “unconstitutional,” and they have done so. The written constitution has been rendered meaningless and the constitution now only exists in the minds of the judges and justices, whose intellects rule the day. America can get rid of dictators on foreign soil but is powerless before the black-robed tyrants on its own soil.

One of the classic television series in the 1950’s was “One Step Beyond” which followed the themes of “Twilight Zone” in exploring the bizarre. With the Terri Schiavo execution, America has gone “one step beyond,” and has moved closer to the abyss of history.