Posted on 03/30/2005 8:54:24 PM PST by Zivasmate
Terri deserves better Linda Chavez (back to web version) | Send
March 30, 2005
As Terri Schiavo lay dying, her organs slowly mummifying from the effects of prolonged, court-ordered dehydration and starvation, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear an appeal from her parents that might have saved her life. Her parents argued that Schiavo's right to due process under the law had been denied, a claim summarily rejected -- without even the pretense of a full hearing -- by a District Court and upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Less than one week later, however, the Supreme Court sat in rapt attention as attorneys argued a very different life and death case, this one involving a convicted rapist and murderer whose case found its way to the high court because he is a non-citizen, and who, it is alleged, had been denied full and adequate access to diplomats from his home country when he was criminally charged.
In both cases, lower courts had already ordered the termination of life -- in the case of Terri Schiavo, by refusing her food and water on the basis of a Florida state court ruling; and in the case of Jose Ernesto Medellin, by the judgment of a Texas jury that he was guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt" of the rape and murder of two teenage girls in 1992.
So, why did the Court give so much more deference to Medellin's claims than to Schiavo's? It's hard to escape the conclusion that it is because many people -- including the judges who have considered her case -- believe that Terry Schiavo's disabilities render her no longer fully human. And in this judgment the medical establishment is fully complicit. The very term used to describe Schiavo's condition -- persistent vegetative state -- conjures up images of a subhuman, sub-animal life form. As one health care professional wrote me after hearing me on television describe the pain Schiavo might suffer as she slowly dehydrated to death, "If you touch a venus fly trap plant (a stimuli) it will immediately close its petals (a reaction). That doesn't mean it feels or cognizes [sic] that there is a fly that has landed." Few public commentators have been as blunt, but the sentiment seeps through nonetheless in the words we choose to describe Schiavo's state.
Although the media has tried endlessly to compare Schiavo's predicament to that of cancer or Alzheimer's patients whose families choose to withhold or withdraw life-support at the end of their lives, Schiavo was not dying -- at least not until a judge ordered that she not be fed or given water. She required no machines to help her breathe, no kidney dialysis to remove toxins from her body, no pacemaker to regulate her heartbeat. She was even able to swallow on her own -- she swallowed two liters of saliva every day, until severe hydration turned her mouth and tongue to dry leather -- which raises the possibility that she may not even have required the feeding tube that the judge ordered removed. Until her court-ordered ordeal, she was a relatively healthy, if severely brain damaged woman whose longevity alone was testament to a will to live.
Those who want to end Terri Schiavo's life have done everything in their power to dehumanize her. But Terri is not a "vegetable." She is not "brain dead." She is severely disabled. She cannot care for herself. She cannot "think" or communicate normally. But she is a person in the clear meaning of the Constitution, that is unless we have now collectively written such persons out of the Constitution.
We have been down this road before when we bought and sold Africans and their progeny as mere "property" and when our courts determined that the unborn are not persons unless their mothers choose to carry them to term. Now we seem on the verge of declaring -- de facto -- that the severely mentally deficient are not persons either. Who will be next -- the gay man suffering from AIDS-related dementia, the Alzheimer's patient who cannot feed herself, the infant with cerebral palsy or spina bifida or hydrocephalus? Will we suddenly find it convenient -- even merciful -- to let such people starve?
Rev. Jesse Jackson joined protesters outside Schiavo's hospice on Tuesday, declaring, "This is one of the profound moral and ethical breaches of our time. . . we pray for a miracle." It should not take a miracle to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that an innocent, brain-damaged woman deserved as much consideration as a convicted rapist and murderer. But then we live in dark times.
Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Townhall.com member organization.
©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Contact Linda Chavez | Read Chavez's biography
BTW, where are all the Women Support Organizations, like NOW?
Why of course, a murderer must get a trial by jury with the best attorney available arguing as vehemently as he can against the conviction and execution of the creep.
But Terri? Wink, wink, wink.
They're tooooooooo buzeh helping one of their own: Michelle Jackson, er, Michael Jackson.
Merciful Father in Heaven, we know that you have seen this from the beginning. I know that I cannot divine what purpose this serves, but if this is your will, so be it, and forgive me for not understanding. But if I am right, and this is decidedly not your will, then please grant that the people who are complicit in this atrocity be granted full measure in return for their evil.
Amen
I think it's a miracle she's still alive.
Maybe God is trying to tell us something.
"Maybe God is trying to tell us something."
If anything, He's trying to tell some stinking court to give the case another fair hearing.
If nothing else, it is a message, very public, of how cruel and brutal this all is. And it very clearly spotlights the involvement of her husband, his lawyer, the police who "protect and serve," and some black hearted judges. Every day is a miracle, and every day it puts the glare of national outrage on these very sick people.
The question I would like to ask him is does Terri have a soul? If her soul is gone where did it go and when did it leave?
HE doesn't speak for the Catholic Church and he sure the hell doesn't speak for this Catholic.
Certainly the Pope seems to beg to differ. That seems worthy of a little notice.
This article is a must read.
I happen to be Jewish, so my answer might not match that of the Catholic theologian.
Yes, Terri has a soul, which is no less valid than the soul of a perfectly functional human being. This is what makes her starvation and dehydration dictated by a presumably secular judge so abhorrent.
You win a cigar for a perfect answer. A Catholic Theologian would have to give the same answer.
What they are doing is killing a soul.
I don't smoke cigars, but then again, neither did Clinton. But unlike the former president, I have no other use for them.
Hey it is like this. As Christ said when then the vinegar soaked rag was put to his lips. " It is done" at this point if she is brought back it would only be to prolong her misery. Most of her organs are beyond recovery. Let the poor girl pass in peace. I am so sorry that I belong to the race of people that let this happen. AMEN
I'm no doctor, but the right nutrients and water could still bring her back, I think. All we need is the green light from some merciful judge in a position to rule over the case.
Federal and state judges need to be elected by the people, and serve far shorter terms with term limits.
Read Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4-5.
Soul as in person, ie 25 souls on board.
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