in this issue:
hot button issue: RALLY FOR LIFE
activism: ADVENT REMEMBRANCE
background: TERRI’S STORY
other statements: BISHOP RAYMOND BURKE / DIANE COLEMAN
reflection for prayer: ADVENT PRAYER
hot button issue
RALLY FOR LIFE: Jim Sedlak of American Life League’s STOPP International project is one of the featured speakers at a series of three Rally for Life events next week in Texas. The rallies are part of an ongoing effort to educate people about Planned Parenthood’s true agenda. Rallies are scheduled in Austin on Dec. 2, in College Station on Dec. 3, and in Houston on Dec. 4. Full details are online at Coalition for Life. Planned Parenthood is planning a counter-offensive, raising funds for a newspaper ad designed to overcome pro-life efforts that have thus far stalled plans to build an abortion facility in Austin. For details, see The Choice Project.
activism
ADVENT REMEMBRANCE: American Life League and other groups are observing this Sunday, Nov. 30 (the First Sunday of Advent) as Terri Schindler Schiavo Day. ALL is “imploring the nation’s Catholic bishops, clergy and laity to take up Terri’s fight in both prayer and action.”
(Reading: “Catholic clergy and laity urged to participate in Terri Schindler Schiavo Day,” American Life League news release, 11/24/03)
background
TERRI’S STORY: In preparation for the event described above, it is appropriate to take a brief look at how Terri Schiavo’s plight reached its current point. We extend our special thanks to Julie Grimstad for providing the following overview, which is up to date as of Nov. 20:
INTRODUCTION: A gradual transformation has taken place in our legal system. Respect for the “sanctity of human life,” once deeply ingrained in our laws and medical ethics, has been replaced by the notion that a person with a low “quality of life” is better off dead, so let’s make him or her die. The current battle over Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s life demonstrates the stark difference between the “sanctity of life” ethic and the “quality of life” ethic. Or, to put it another way, the opposing sides in this case are waging a crucial battle between the Culture of Death and the Culture of Life.
THE FACTS: In 1990, Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage when she stopped breathing for approximately ten minutes. She was then 26 years old. For the last 13 years she has been cognitively disabled, and dependent on others for her care, including tube-feeding. She requires no extraordinary means to be kept alive. In other words, she is healthy and all she needs is food and water. The Florida courts, some physicians, her husband and his lawyers are seeking to end Terri’s life by withdrawing her tube-feeding. Her parents, sister and brother have been fighting for her life. Others have joined them, including fourteen disability rights groups who filed a friend-of-the-court brief to keep Terri alive, numerous pro-life and pro-family organizations, a number of Catholic bishops and other religious leaders, Governor Jeb Bush, and the Florida legislature.
For the past 10 years, Terri’s family, the Schindlers, have been locked in a battle with Terri’s husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo, trying to get her rehabilitative therapy and to keep him from removing Terri’s feeding tube. They love Terri and want to take care of her. Her husband/guardian wants her dead.
On October 15, 2003, a Florida court ordered her feeding tube removed. Terri survived 6 days without fluids or food before Florida lawmakers passed a law allowing the governor to intervene and order the tube reinserted.* Michael and his lawyers have appealed this legislation (“Terri’s Law”) on the grounds that it is unconstitutional, violating the separation-of-powers in the government and Terri’s right of privacy. Jacob DiPietro, spokesman for Governor Bush, says the governor is confident that the law will be upheld. The governor is also seeking a jury trial to resolve the question of Terri’s wishes.
The tug of war is far from over. Terri’s life still hangs in the balance.
THE CONFLICT: Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband, claims that Terri told him she would not want to be kept alive by “artificial means” and that he is simply trying to carry out her wishes. He says she has no consciousness and will never recover. Michael did not recall Terri’s statement until after a malpractice settlement of over $1 million was paid in 1992. Furthermore, Michael presented evidence to the malpractice jury that Terri would likely live a normal life span and he also presented a rehabilitation plan. That evidence was considered when the jury decided how much to award him.
About $750,000 of the malpractice award was earmarked for Terri’s care and rehabilitation, but most of it has been spent on legal fees to end her life, not therapy to improve her life. According to medical records provided to the Schindler family’s attorney, since 1992 Terri has not received any therapy and only minimal care.
Three physicians testified in court that Terri is in a “persistent vegetative state.” Over a dozen other physicians have stated their opinion that Terri is awake and aware and could significantly improve if given rehabilitative therapy. The Schindlers describe their daughter as alert and responsive. “She cries, she laughs and she follows me around the room. She laughs at her dad’s jokes. Each day is different,” Terri’s mother told Oprah Winfrey when she appeared on her show via satellite.
Everyone agrees that Terri is not dying. Therefore, this is not a matter of allowing a dying person to die. Taking away her food and water is nothing short of killing her.
Judge George Greer, of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Clearwater, Florida, found “clear and convincing evidence” of Terri’s wishes in testimony by Michael, his brother and sister-in-law that Terri had told them a year before her injury that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means. Terri’s parents don’t believe she would have said that, even casually.
Is Michael simply trying to make his own life easier? He is living with another woman, with whom he has one child and another on the way. He plans to marry his girlfriend when Terri dies. If nothing else, that is certainly a conflict of interest. And, the question must be asked: Is Michael Schiavo the right person to decide Terri Schiavo’s fate?
A new dimension has been added to that question. A federally funded investigation has begun regarding certain medical decisions Terri’s husband has made for her. Perhaps this investigation will also finally discover what actually caused her brain to be deprived of oxygen, resulting in her disability. While the alleged cause was cardiac arrest, there is medical evidence that Terri may have been physically abused. Will the courts wait for the results of the investigation, or will they allow Michael to order her death before the truth is known?
COMMENT: The Terri Schindler-Schiavo case is a wake-up call! We are routinely killing cognitively disabled people by dehydration. Try to imagine yourself going even one day without a glass of water. Then ask yourself how anyone could be silent when someone who cannot speak for herself is subjected to such torture, not for one day, but for 6 days or 10 days or two weeks, unto death.
other statements
BISHOP RAYMOND BURKE: The bishop of LaCrosse, Wis., writes: “If Mrs. Schiavo were facing imminent death, or were unable to receive food and water without harm, then removing nutrition and hydration would be morally permissible. It is however never permissible to remove food and water to cause death. Food and water are basic human needs, and therefore basic human rights.”
DIANE COLEMAN: This disability rights activist with Not Dead Yet said: “The Schiavo case should be seen as a wake up call for all of us. This case is about officially and permanently dismantling the constitutional rights of people who have guardians and giving carte blanche to guardians to starve and dehydrate people who are seen as not worth the effort or expense. Disability rights groups are coming forward to argue that it’s time to reestablish constitutional protections against a health care system that’s been putting profits before people for far too long. I said that we’re the canaries in the coal mine, but there’s a problem with that analogy: we don’t see people who need guardians as expendable. Maybe you disagree. But at least agree that we deserve an honest public debate before we grant the health care system a virtually unfettered right to kill.”
reflection for prayer
ADVENT PRAYER: Stir up thy power, O Lord, and come, that by thy protection we may be rescued from the dangers that beset us through our sins; and be a Redeemer to deliver us; Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.