Op-ed: Barack Obama vs. Terri Schiavo
April 4th, 2008“In none of the endless presidential candidates’ debates has there been a meaningful discussion of the rights of disabled Americans,” says columnist Nat Hentoff in a column in the Sacramento Bee.
Hentoff takes Barack Obama to task for his recent statement of regret at having voted with the Senate to ask the federal courts to review the case of Terri Schiavo. By making the remark, Hentoff says,
Obama casually and ignorantly revealed his misunderstanding of the basic issue in the highly visible and still-resonating official death sentence of a disabled woman.
Hentoff says Obama failed to understand the basic message of 29 major disability-rights organizations on the case: that this was not a right-to-die case, but a case about a woman’s right to continue living.
Says Hentoff:
[Obama] should be proud of the Senate vote he now recants — and learn a lot more about the disabled.
This entry was posted
on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under brain damage, civil rights, end of life, ethics, law, medicine, politics.
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