Nat Hentoff is a friend of mine, and it is a great honor to be able to make that claim. For decades he has stood steadfastly for individual rights and civil liberties. When he writes about the sanctity and equality of human life, he has no peer–as in this reminder of the great wrong done to Terri Schiavo, which Hentoff calls evocatively, “the longest execution in American history.”
For those who are ignorant enough to believe that only the “religious right” stood for Terri’s right to life, Hentoff notes that this was not really a “right to die” case but “a disability rights case,” a fact oft ignored by the media. And as for Hentoff: He is a proud atheist who understands the crucial and profound importance of every human life having equal moral value simply and merely because it is human.