The Reptilian Brains of Terri’s Executioners
By Joan Swirsky
ThePostEmail.com
Cleverpix, Pixabay
For decades, neuroscientists have recognized that
the brain has three distinct systems. One is derived
from primitive reptiles that were adept at survival
strategies. Another includes the limbic
system––often called the “seat of emotions.” The
third includes the neocortex and prefrontal lobes
(comprising the right and left hemispheres of the
brain) that account for thinking, verbal abilities,
and other “higher” functions.
My theory is that Terri’s putative husband Michael,
his attorney George J. Felos, and Judge George
Greer–who ruled for years against Terri’s right to
life–have highly developed reptilian brains and
prefrontal lobes, but that they are sorely lacking
in anything resembling a normal limbic system.
What exactly is the limbic system? Located just
below the neocortex, it is the part of the brain
that governs––among other emotions––affection,
feelings, and most of all, empathy.
What is empathy? Simply, it is the ability to feel
what others are feeling. It is not sympathy, which
is feeling sorry for someone or that something
happened. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability
to put oneself in the place of another person and
actually experience the feelings they are
experiencing––be they joy, anxiety, fear or pain.
Persuasive research over the past several decades,
conducted by the most prestigious science
institutions both in America and abroad, has relied
on PET and more recently fMRI scans (the “f” stands
for functional) that visualize brain activity to
demonstrate that structural and
functional abnormalities in several brain regions
(the limbic system, the amygdala, the hippocampus,
et al) account for a lack of empathy.
People who lack empathy are called sociopaths, a
euphemistic version of what was once called
psychopaths. Like all cold-blooded killers, they are
literally incapable of feeling what another person
feels. While they may be expert at affecting what
amounts to a parody of normality and integrity,
charm, and intellect, underneath their guises is a
total inability to “feel your pain.”
CALLING A SPADE A SPADE
You can call it bad character, or you can say, as
liberals and retro psychotherapists do, that the
unfeeling person––like the terrorists who murdered
nearly 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11,
2001––are “victims” of their upbringings or
circumstances.
I say that no matter the source of the behavior,
people lacking the kind of empathy that allows them
to kill without remorse––for instance, to starve a
healthy woman to death––are no different than other
21st Century
terrorists and deserve the same consequences:
indictment, conviction, and imprisonment.
While antidepressant, anti-anxiety and
anti-psychotic drugs have successfully treated
millions of people with biologically driven mental
illnesses––there is NO CURE for sociopaths!
Does this describe the likes of Michael Schiavo,
Felos and Greer? You decide.
From what I observed, all of them are reptilian in
their icy coldness, and malevolent fakers when they
use the “higher centers” of their brains to
dissemble and pretend that they “feel” what they
clearly don’t feel at all.
They all knew exactly what starvation would entail
for Terri, who at the time of her court-ordered
death sentence was vibrantly healthy, save for her
limited mental function. To name but a few
horrifying symptoms that she probably experienced
were:
-
Skin rashes that they knew she couldn’t scratch
as well as irritation of all her tissues,
particularly of the tongue, mouth, and vagina,
-
Shrinking of her vital organs like the heart and
lungs,
-
Uncontrollable diarrhea and/or painful
contractions of her intestines,
-
Frightening weakness that she never felt before,
-
Swelling from fluid under her skin,
-
Immune deficiency,
-
Psychotic thinking.
And these merchants of death were also aware that
the dehydration they ordered––depriving Terri of
water––would entail:
-
Unbearable, unquenchable thirst,
-
Muscle weakness and therefore painful cramps,
-
Nausea and vomiting,
-
Deep rapid breathing and/or, to Terri, a
frightening increased heart rate,
-
Dried out skin in her nose as well as the pain
of cracked lips,
-
The shutdown of her kidneys,
-
Loss of consciousness.
Foto-Rabe, Pixabay
SNAKES DON’T
CARE
Ostensibly unmoved by her plight were a triumvirate
of reptiles: Terri’s money-hungry husband had
already collected a million dollars in a malpractice
settlement about his claim that doctors failed to
diagnose her so-called but still-undocumented
bulimia, and he also stood to receive $1.2 million
as the heir to the remainder of that judgment; his
seemingly euthanasia-infatuated attorney; and the
idealogue judge.
All of them were unmoved by Terri’s agonizingly slow
death because they claimed she would have chosen
that fate for herself. Never mind the absence of a
signed Living Will or videotape of her wishes.
During the nearly two weeks that Terri suffered
after her feeding tube was removed, empathic people
throughout the world had a heightened awareness of
their own hunger pangs and thirst, and the merciful
availability of the food and drink at their
fingertips. But the reptiles didn’t.
When Michael Schiavo––who had obviously been busy
following the money––decided that “for better or
worse, through sickness and health, ‘til death do us
part” were inconvenient elements of the marital oath
he swore before God and chose not to divorce Terri
nor to seek an annulment of their marriage but opted
instead for bigamy and to father two children.
And the normal empathy that develops when people
become parents didn’t appear to happen to Michael.
Instead of “feeling” the pain that Terri’s parents
experienced and identifying with their determination
to care for their daughter “in sickness and in
health,” he seemed to feel––as all reptiles
do––nothing.
And in what federalist.com called
“the final act of selfish cruelty, [he] arrived only
minutes before her death [and] denied the request of
her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, to remain with
Terri for her final breath.”
A
VOICE OF MORALITY
Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, two days
after Terri Schiavo (public
domain)
The website’s commentary went on to cite the words
of Pope John Paul II, whose empathy for humanity and
evolved morality provided stark contrast to the
reptilian natures of Michael Schiavo and company.
Last year, the Pope––on a feeding tube himself in
his final days–– effectively declared his `living
will’ in a speech to doctors and ethicists, saying:
“The administration of water and food, even when
provided by artificial means, always represents a
natural means of preserving life, not a medical
act.” He described the denial of such care
“euthanasia by omission.”
As far back as 1950, Five Star General Omar Bradley
stated what could be aptly applied to the Terri
Schiavo case: “We have grasped the mystery of the
atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount…the world
has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is
a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
“What can we expect?” asks Christopher Flickinger in
an article in www.therant.us.
“For those citizens with handicaps or disabilities,
you are forewarned – someone may have his eye on
you. If you’re blind, deaf, mute, in a wheelchair,
on crutches, use a walker or a cane, walk with a
limp or have an appendage missing, you better mind
your P’s and Q’s. One little slip-up, just one, and
someone could deem your life unfit for living, take
away your wheelchair, put you in a Hospice center
and starve you to death. [The] excuse would be,
“Well, they’re worthless shells of a human. Those
cripples have been draining my pocketbook for years
– all those ramps and elevators and special parking
spots. Forget about legislation in order to fix
Social Security. I’ll fix it myself by lightening
our load… With this new precedent of social
Darwinism sweeping the nation, there’s no end to the
possibilities. In a way, we’ll pick-up where Hitler
failed. Forget about a master race. We’re more
interested in preserving the lives of those who can
win the race. And as for everyone else, Pandora’s
box is now wide open.”
In Schiavo’s case, criminal proceedings may yet
ensue. According to NewsMax.com, Florida’s
Department of Children and Families had received 89
allegations that Schiavo had abused his wife – but
Judge Greer (surprise!) ruled that DCF summaries of
those allegations must remain secret to everyone
except (surprise!) Michael Schiavo himself. However,
The St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune have
now filed lawsuits for the release of the abuse
summaries.
Terri Schiavo with mother, Mary, 2001 (fair
use)
It’s too late for Terri––and the millions of babies
who were the victims of infanticide through abortion
since her death––but it’s not too late for American
citizens to take careful note of those elected
officials––overwhelmingly liberals––who through
their support of abortion and now euthanasia are
responsible for what has become a “culture of death”
in our country, and to boot them out of office or
make sure they are never elected or reelected.
Joan
Swirsky is a New York-based journalist and author.
Her website is www.joanswirsky.com,
and she can be reached at joanswirsky@gmail.com.