Terri Schiavo, centre, poses with her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, in this undated photo. (AP Photo/Schindler Family, File)
Her wedding picture, how ironic.
Posted on 03/25/2005 5:21:18 AM PST by mhking
My position on the Schiavo matter has vascilated back and forth over the past few days as I've agonized over the matter.
Should she be given a chance at life? If so, what kind of life are we talking about? Is there a chance at rehabilitation? Is Michael Schiavo an evil S.O.B., or is he simply a heart-broken man?
Conversely, is she truly in a vegetative state? A virtual zombie with eyes open, and nothing inside? Are her parents and family in denial about her pain and suffering? Are the evangelicals coming to her aid getting so worked up that they are looking past the true nature of this situation?
Difficult questions these. Who wins? Who loses?
There is no winner here. This situation is heartbreaking at the core. A vibrant woman struck down in the prime of her life. A myriad of doctors, most of whom have indicated that much of her brain tissue has deteriorated and possibly even liquified inside her skull. CAT scans that support that diagnosis.
Conversely, we see her eyes focusing on a balloon, we see her apparently responding to people entering her limited field of vision.
What do we believe?
After 22 different judges have agonized over this, they all have come to the same decision: that her husband has the right to make that agonizing decision.
Talk show host Neil Boortz has taken the stance that Terri Schiavo has earned her place in heaven, and that we, as a people, should let her go home.
Do you believe in God’s promise of everlasting life? Do you believe that the reward for a life well spent on this earth is a life with God in heaven after you die? If you do, then a few more questions if you will.Jesus awaits Terri Schiavo at the gates of heaven with open arms. He will grant her eternal rest. He loves all, no matter which side of this sad story the people are on.Do you believe that the human soul can make the transition to everlasting life while the human body that carried that soul through life clings to life on this earth? If you do, then you must surely believe that Terri Schiavo has earned and is already enjoying her reward in heaven. That being the case, why is it so important to you that the now-unneeded body of Terri Schiavo is kept alive?
But perhaps you believe, as I do, that the human soul is so connected to and integrated with its earthly body that any transition will not be made until that body ceases functioning -- until death occurs.. That being the case, why do you so ardently desire that the soul of Terri Schiavo spend five, ten, perhaps 30 years or more trapped in a useless and non-functioning body, unable to move on to whatever reward awaits her? Isn’t 15 years enough?
Where do your concerns truly lie, with the eternal soul of Terri Schiavo, or with her earthly body?
Let her go home. We can only commend her spirit among the angels for the journey.
Sadly, those who damn the judges and politicians and those of us who wish her spirit to move on are going to fracture the fragile fabric of the conservative wing of the GOP. In their zeal to ignore the rule of law and the Constitutional process, they are sliding down the slippery slope of anarchy toward mob rule.
This is a land of laws, not men. And the political problems that are surfacing -- on both sides -- point toward the deterioration of our constitutional republic. Are you ready for that? Are you ready for that will mean in the future?
I weep for Terri Schiavo today. But I fear for more tears in our future, thanks to those who would wad up the Constitutional protections and freedoms wrought by the notion of ignoring the rule of law, simply because those in power didn't get their way.
Is Terri a Christian? Not all disabled people with tragic stories "earn" a place in heaven. If she trusts the Lord, of course, her destiny is a heavenly one....
The only thing I really know about Fathers' will is that people need the Lord and relationship with Him,through Christ Alone.
How backwards is that?
Who is to decide what people need? What everyone needs? You? Your pastor? Your close circle of friends in your church? Horsepucky. You've completely missed the point of it all. Knowing the Fathers will is irrelevant...we'll never know everything about the Fathers will until we meet him we we die. The only thing we can do in the meantime is to try to live a godly, upright and just life, and show Christ's love towards all people. I don't know why people seem to complicate things and demean Christianity by making "winning souls to Christ" the end all of a Christian life; as if they are %100 sure of their standing with God. Its actually disgusting to see a group of well-intentioned people so blinded something so obvious. An innocent woman is being murdered, and all that is important is that "souls may have been won to Christ". Disgusting. I'm sure any non-Christian is on the edge of their seat wanting to become a part of such a group of loving people who value life so much.
/rant off
He's waiting for you also, eh?
Then, in your worldview, everyone should just be killed, right? If Heaven's a better place, a la Sen. Jim King, why waste time down here in this hellhole?
This is NOT a religion issue. This is an issue of unbridled judicial power, in which a local county probate judge acting on questionable hearsay information can kill an innocent disabled woman. The slippery slope track you and your ilk have described is simply wrong. It won't be the "theocracy" that kills this country, it will be the "judiciacry" - where local probate judges can kill defenseless citizens in contraditction to the will of the elected representatives of the area, state and country. Abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, and not having the "masters" have to put up with those "inconvenient" fetuses, old people, disabled... THAT is the slippery slope we are careening down. And, we're not alone. We can easily see Western Europe a couple of exits down that freeway ahead of us.
I cry for Terri and our country.
Yep. As I thought. Another misrepresentation. I see a pattern here. The law is okay when it accurately finds the patients wishes. Well, some quibble with the ethics of forced starvation (I do), and the clinical determination of PVS (I have not made up my mind on that one), but leaving those aside -- the issue is that the finder of fact, Greer, blew the finding of fact.
I am inclined to advise people to NOT do a Living Will, because those can be construed against the patient's wishes. Better to have a trusted friend named as surrogate. You have abetter chance with them than with a morally and ethically bankrupt judicial and medical system. The legislation is fine. Plus, legislators language is twisted by the courts anyway, see SCOFLA and the 2000 election, for example.
Terri Schiavo, centre, poses with her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, in this undated photo. (AP Photo/Schindler Family, File)
Her wedding picture, how ironic.
Does anyone care to hazard a guess as to when Michael Shiavo's book deal and made for t.v. movie deal materializes? I'm just guessing here. Perhaps he will decide the subject should not be aired any more and we will be spared the repeat of it on t.v. and in book form. - If not, then there's always the remote control for the t.v., and walking past the book aisle without stopping if we see his picture on a book there.
A husband and a guardian has used the court to circumvent the deep desires of this woman's mother and father, over a maniacal stand on principle. Pity him on Judgement Day.
Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
I love what you have written about Jeb. I've been very uncomfortable with the tone that some have taken against him. I believe he is a truly dedicated man and did everything possible that he could. I hate that this is happening and removing Terri's tube is pure evil. I believe she is going to die this time. I don't like it and hope that those who are fighting now continue to do so after she passes. Jeb is not the enemy.
I think what Jeb Bush and President Bush knew that there was nothing they could do to save Terri, but maybe because of the actions they took, they will insure that this does not happen again to someone else. Now people know the importance of living wills. Therefore the efforts of the "Save Terri" side will not have been in vain.
Man, that comment shows a lack of understanding of the legal principles involved in this case. I understand why though, the media is awash with misleading Q&A, polls; and much of the discussion takes a priori, as fact, that the law automatically gives a spouse the right to deny medical care that would kill his better half.
That picture just makes anyone want to cry, I think. What an awful occurrence this is. Just awful.
My prayers are with Terri and her family. I'm glad that a friar from our state, Brother O'Donnell is there to help Terri's family. He and other friars cared for their founder who suffered brain damage after a bacterial pneumonia infection. Brother Gaworski lived 12-1/2 years (in a persistive vegetative state) in the friar's care and died of natural causes. O'Donnell met Terri's brother last year at a DC Right to Life conference and has spent hundreds of hours with the family.
Totally agree. Better not get married if one comment 15 years ago about a situation that is not necessairly the one you are in gets you killed. Scary.
I don't, of course, but as God managed to set up life-saving appointments for the Ethiopian eunuch, the Philippian jailer, and Cornelius, I hope He's previously found a way -- if indeed Terri will soon die at the hands of the unmerciful -- to introduce Terri to His Son and His mercy.
Good post...Marjorie Nighbert would agree but she's not able to. Her living will killed her
People espect Bush to undo half a century of liberal judges overnight.
What do people on both sides of this divide see when they look at Terri Schiavo? The scientific rationalists see a vegetable in human form, a life only in the strictest sense of the word. They see a human machine that is broken and cannot be repaired. And they see, in the application of the law over the course of 15 years, a totally rational series of decisions. Her husband is her guardian. He says she wouldn't have wanted to live in this condition, and because she cannot speak, he has the legal authority to speak for her. Then there are those who look at Terri Schiavo and see something else. They see a helpless person, a trapped person, a tragic person. But they do not see a vegetable. They see a human being with a soul. They see a mystery. The rationalists say she will not suffer through her slow starvation because she no longer feels. The soul-believers say there is no way to know that — that science has limits and that it reaches its limits when it tries to define what it means to be human. The rationalists, who center their universe on the brain, see brain damage as a horror beyond imagining from which death would be a relief. Their antagonists center their convictions on a belief in the soul, and they say: No soul is of lesser value than any other. The soul-believers have lost this argument to the rationalists. They are used to losing. They have been losing the argument on abortion for more than 30 years now. This isn't about winning for them. It's about believing in things that cannot be seen. For some reason, the conviction of those who believe in the divine fills the scientific rationalists with unreasoning rage.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.