Posted on 04/15/2005 1:49:57 PM PDT by FR_addict
In a house on Chicago’s southeast side, a Mexican family is going through a heartbreak like the tragedy that befell the American Terri Schiavo’s family and deeply affected both those who defend the right to life and partisans of euthanasia. But no voices had been raised so far in this case because very few knew about the situation concerning the 39-year-old Latin woman whose husband decided to disconnect the tube that had been feeding her during her three and a half years in a vegetative state.
As of the close of this edition, Clara Martinez, 39 years old and mother of two children aged five and seven years – had been almost 30 days without food and was still alive, taking only water. For the last year she has been cared for in her home, with special medical equipment installed in the living room, while the rest of the family try to go on with their lives.
This woman has remained in this condition since suffering a stroke. She was cared for in the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Medical Center, later at an intermediate care facility, then at the hospital again, and finally she was taken to her home. At that time the physicians had judged her condition to be irreversible.
Under these conditions her husband Salvador Martinez, 35 years old and also Mexican, resolved that his wife should not live artificially. He signed a “Do Not Resuscitate” order to keep her from being revived artificially and disconnected the feeding machine. Under these conditions the woman should have died by withdrawal of feeding and the case would have gone unnoticed, had it not been for the intervention of a pastor of the Hispanic Evangelical Church at 4340 W. 87th St.
The wife’s mother, Gregoria Ruano, who has lived 33 years in the US after coming from the state of Durango in Mexico, attends this church. She disagrees with her son-in-law’s decision and spoke about the situation with Pastor Guillermo Espinoza.
Indeed, family and members of this church seem to be against euthanasia, which has led the husband to refuse an interview with La Raza, saying he doesn’t want to go public with my troubles. “My problems are mine, I will take care of them, and when I need you, I will call you,” was his reply.
According to Pastor Espinoza, who is from Bolivia, “The husband made a decision and will not change it, even though the family does not agree.”
Just as in the much-discussed case of Terri Schiavo, in which even the Vatican has called death by withholding feeding “an offense against life,” the Evangelical pastor feels that withholding feeding is “a form of hastening a death that definitely was not occurring.”
In the interview he said that when he was with the wife, “she moved, opened her eyes, and when we prayed and sang together by her bedside, she blinked as though she was listening.” He said it was also significant that, in spite of her condition, the woman was still “able to take water.”
Espinoza said that his was not a personal opinion on the right to life but from the Bible, which establishes that “God is the one who gives life and takes it away at such times as He sees fit.” According to Espinoza, “We conceptualize life in the context of a perfection, and when perfection is lacking, we feel it is incomplete.”
And so, “The husband’s ideal is the sublimated ideal of life. He wants to see his wife healthy like always and can’t conceive of seeing her like this.”
Court battle
Schiavo was disconnected per court order on March 18 from the apparatus that was keeping her alive. The so-called “Schiavo case” took a seven-year court battle between the husband, Michael Schiavo, who argued that she did not want to live artificially, and her parents, who maintained the opposite, and carried it into political terrain.
Even the President of the US, George W. Bush, took part in the dispute, taking the side of the conservative and religious groups opposed to euthanasia. He declared that “Those who live by the mercy of others deserve special concern.”
The tragedy involving Terri Schiavo began in 1990 when she was 26 years old. She has been in a persistent vegetative state after suffering a hear attack caused by a sudden drop in her body’s potassium levels, brought on by a strict weight-loss diet.
She was fed artificially for eight years until 1998 when her husband, who exercised legal guardianship, became convinced that there was no hope for her to live normally and asked for her feeding tube to be withdrawn. He claimed that his wife never wanted to live that way, although there was no legal document expressing such a wish.
That was the year the long and drawn-out court battle between Terri’s husband and parents began, during which the woman’s feeding tube was disconnected and reconnected on three occasions.
After the second disconnection in October of 2003, Terri’s parents appealed to the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, who presented a special bill to the state legislature which passed the so-called “Terri’s Law” which allowed the governor to order the feeding tube to be reconnected again.
Michael Schiavo brought suit claiming that law to be unconstitutional, and in September of 2004, Florida’s Supreme Court struck down the law. The feeding tube was disconnected anew.
Terri’s parents appealed for intervention by the US Congress and President Bush, who promulgated a bill in Congress with majority Republican support for “relief for the parents of Teresa Marie Schiavo.”
And so the case went to the US Supreme Court, which finally denied the claim and decided in favor of disconnection. The woman died fourteen days later.
At that time, L’Osservatore Romano (the official publication of the Holy See) published an editorial expressing fear at the wave of devastation that will, as a result of this case, erase established values and wildly distort people’s beliefs. It lamented the quality of life being judged inadequately when under guardianship, when a patient is in no condition to relate and comprehend. It also rejected the woman’s vegetative state as being synonymous with brain death or incapacity to feel the “slow agony” of being without food and water.
Living will
Comparing Terri Schiavo’s case with that of the Mexican family, Pastor Espinoza told La Raza he is worried about laws that could be passed. “If we allow a law to determine who will or will not live, it will be an offense against God’s principles of ethics.” In his opinion, nobody should be allowed to determine that “this person is not a living human being, so I decide when I give life or take away life. It’s a sophisticated way of murdering somebody.”
The “Schiavo Case” points to the need for people to make arrangements for having a “living will” in which they set forth their wishes for not being resuscitated or kept alive by artificial means, although opinions have been expressed that feeding and hydration – with or without tubes – are not considered artificial. As for the Catholic Church, its followers cannot request in a living will that denied water and nutrition be withheld, “as that is starvation, a deliberate mutilation of the body.”
So The Race was against the killing of Terri Schindler? Who knew?
I pray this is not true.
The minister sounds very good.
No, this is the first time I've heard about it. This will not sit well with the Hispanic community.
Hoo boy...now they're going to come out of the woodwork.
The pastor has no right to intervene. Like the courts and the governmental entities in the Schiavo matter, he should butt out.
My eyes are tired, so I didn't notice -- did the wife have any written directive (e.g., living will)?
Whahhhhh. Cry me a river. That Mexican family should have been seeking their succour in their homeland...and NOT in the Americans' homeland.
30 DAYS!!!!!!!!!! Lord have mercy!! Is there anything that can be done?
At least her husband is giving her WATER!!! He's not quite the monster as Michael Schiavo.
well....in case any of us is worried about our impact on society and our fight for moral issues, I can tell you that although we may appear on the surface to lose some of our battles, we are really winning the hearts and minds of the good people in America. As well, as being,ourselves -- the good parts of the hearts and minds of America.
Happen to have a list of all of you and thought we should all ahve a look at this.
Immediatly I am thinking that someone should file a complaint with whatever organization it is in Chicago for abouse against disabled people. At least get some one with authority to look at this.
Next suppose we need to do some quick research on Illinois law.
Terri we have not forgotten you.
Pastor Espinoza is right.
The Jews for Morality release (March 31) called Schiavo's
death "Crossing the Rubicon." I myself am reminded of
Malcolm Gladwell's fairly recent book the Tipping Point,
where he chronicles, some here may recall, how the fact
that events happen (suicides, road accidents) seems to
bring about an increase in those events. How much more
we should dread the "permission" given by the travesty
of justice perpetrated by all parts of our government.
It sounds like in this case there might not be $$$ when this poor Hispanic woman finally starves to death, but MRS has $$$ awaiting him from estate "rights."
Who will volunteer to call the Priest?
It worked real well lst time when we had one person be the contact person with the family.
Who is up for this one to check out the story?
Need to call priest and mother. Probably should speak Spanish if calling mother.
Also until we can get a handle on this let's try and take the higher path and NOT bring in any ethnic comments, okay?
Up is Down and Down is Up
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Probably we would need anothe person to contact the News Reporter.
http://www.laraza.com/news.php?nid=21715
Will anyone volunteer for this?
We should proably start pinging people we know.
If she can drink water then this is pure starvation, as she is a vunerable person and can drink ensure. If this story checks out, and seeing as how the reporter has already done interviews it sounds legitimate, this is attempted murder and abuse.
How did you find this?
Why withholding food but not water?. I don't see their logic.
I don't think there is any logic.
I think the husband jsut got tired of taking care of her.
my gues, He doens't know that you can live for a couple months on jsut water.
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