Posted on 10/19/2003 8:02:16 AM PDT by NYer
Dear Governor Bush:
As members of the Catholic media, we beg you, in the name of our Lord Jesus, to intervene in the case of Terry Schiavo, and, by extension, in the lives of the millions of persons with special needs in Florida and throughout our country whose lives will be greatly endangered if Ms. Schiavo is left to die, or, more accurately, murdered through the present withdrawal of food and water.
The judge in this case is acting on a remarkable doctrine: That food and water are medicines which may be granted or withheld based on a judicial order. What legal or moral authority gives anyone the right to withhold food and water from an innocent person? Starvation is a most painful and difficult death. If one were to propose it as a method of execution for death row prisoners, it would be instantly opposed by society under the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. If starvation is cruel and unusual punishment, it should not have the imprimatur of the State of Florida for any innocent citizen.
We admire your seeking the assistance of the St. Thomas More Society concerning what is legally just. And we are strengthened in our hearts by their response that, at the very least, you have the authority and the duty to protect her life and to conduct a proper and thorough investigation. We appreciate the difficulty of this matter and that the right course of action before God may not be the popular one in today's culture.
The moral and just path, however, is clear to us who believe that human life is God's to give and His alone to take. History has shown the truth of the statement, The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. We would go a step further in saying that those who have the power to do good, and yet do nothing, participate in the triumph of evil, whether or not their withholding of the good seeks or intends such evil.
It may be that our Lord has put you into office, like Queen Esther of old, for such a time as this . The God who saved Esther, and through her, the people of God, will not abandon you, dear Governor. He is faithful. May our Lord Jesus Christ be your comfort and guide in this urgent hour, and may you be His instrument to save the life of one of His little ones , and through her, the dignity of every soul made in His image.
With gratitude and prayer,
Rosalind Moss,
Catholic Author and Speaker
Father Richard John Neuhaus
Editor in Chief, FIRST THINGS
The Institute on Religion and Public Life
Pete Vere, Editor
The Alhambran Magazine
Mark Shea
Catholic Author and Speaker
Philip F. Lawler
Editor, Catholic World Report and Catholic World News
Carl Olson
Editor, Envoy Magazine
John Pacheco
Catholic Author and Speaker
Domenico Bettinelli, Jr
Managing Editor, Catholic World Report magazine
Amy Welborn
Columnist, Our Sunday Visitor
Martin K. Barrack
Catholic Author and Speaker
David Pearson
Features Editor, National Catholic Register
Mike Mohr
Chairman, St. Bernadette Soubirous Chapter of Catholics United for Faith
Dave Armstrong
Catholic Author and Speaker
Gerald Korson
Editor, Our Sunday Visitor
Steve Ray
Catholic Author and Television Host
Rod Bennett
Editor, WONDER Magazine
Matt C. Abbott
Columnist, the Wanderer
Tim Drake
Staff Writer, National Catholic Register
Dr. Paul Thigpen
Executive Director, The Stella Maris Center for Faith and Culture
Mary Kochan,
Contributing Editor, Catholic Exchange
Sandra Miesel
Catholic Journalist
David Moss
President, Association of Hebrew Catholics
Maureen and Robert Wittmann
Catholic authors and speakers
Steve Kellmeyer
Bridegroom Press
Mike Aquilina
Vice President, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
Mark Brumley
Catholic Author
Greg Popcak
Catholic Author and Radio Host
Patty Bonds
Catholic Author and Speaker
Jeff Cavins
Catholic Radio and Television Host
Fr. Joseph F. Wilson
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
That is purely hypothetical. On the other hand, it's not hypothetical to suggest that if, under the care of a new guardian, she were given therapy and showed any significant improvement, her guardian would be able to file a really big lawsuit on her behalf against Felos and Schiavo for having willfully withheld the therapy that was supposed to be paid for by the trust fund.
Even if her initial collapse was entirely accidental, Schiavo and Felos would still be in big trouble if Terri ever made any sort of recovery.
Terri's HINO has actively prevented her from receiving any sort of therapy. The fact is that there's no way we can know, or will ever be able to know, what Terri's true condition was or to what extent she might have improved with therapy.
There are people alive today who were in apparently-worse shape than Terri, but who have recovered enough to lead somewhat normal lives. One of my relatives was in a head-on collision with a jack-knifed semi and was comatose for well over a month, but she now lives at home with her husband.
Had therapy been tried and proven unsuccessful, then your point of view might not be unreasonable. But to suggest that someone should be killed before making any effort at rehabilitation after an accidental incident(*) is just plain wrong.
(*) As distinct from an incident caused by an persistent underlying medical condition. If someone suffers cardiac arrest as a result of a rapidly spreading cancer, restarting their heart won't do much good because the underlying cause for its stopping will still be present. In the case of someone whose heart stops as a result of massive trauma, restarting the heart may allow it to function for many more years if the trauma is fixed.
The cause of death on the death certificate must be sufficient to: ... (3) identify the underlying or proximate cause of death - the "due to" disease or injury responsible for initiating the lethal sequence of events.From everything Schiavo, Felos, and Greer have been saying, the initiating event would be Terri's fall, right? So what caused Terri's fall?
Yes ... it has already been legalized in the Netherlands. As you so wisely pointed out, they come 'first' for the mentally disabled, then move on to the next group. Notice, no one in the media has connected the dots between a woman who can breathe but requires nourishment via a feeding tube, and Christopher Reeve who could not exist for more than a few minutes without his ventilator. Or how about Stephen Hawking? What separates Terri Schiavo from them? Where is the outcry from these advocates for the disabled .... hmmmm????
Stephen Hawking - Physicist
requires an individual to interpret his 'grunts'
Granted Reprieve to live
Christopher Reeve - (former) Actor
Advocates using stem cells from aborted fetuses to research cures for spinal cord injuries.
Granted Reprieve to live life.
Terri Schindler Schiavo - Wife
Terri is not on a respirator or any artificial life support.
Condemned to Death by Starvation
If she's smart, she'll take her child, skip town, and send an anonymous message to Michael Schiavo suggesting that if he wants her to keep quiet he should wire $500,000 to a certain offshore bank account.
Precedent has already been set. The only thing that makes this unique is that Terri has refused to die off like she was supposed to. Therefore, if this case has any effect, I predict it will be to wake up a lot of people to the lies and deceptions to which the pro-death forces are willing to stoop. And if that happens, even if Terri doesn't last the week, her 13-year struggle for survival against Schiavo's tortures--which she could probably have passed away from if she'd wanted--will not have been in vain.
My guess is because the majority of the mainstream media believe in and help promote "euthanasia." While Terri's case does have some elements for a debate on euthanasia, it's not quite right and could turn out to be detrimental to the "right to die/culture of death" agenda, if you know what I mean.
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