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.”
I haven't been able to verify this story. Anyone have any luck finding out more about it?
Agreed.
okay, if the woman is Mexican, does her government know of this situation?
I like your 'accent.' :)
Terri we have not forgotten you.
I'm touched by the warmth and strength of your statement.
Thanks.
Whoa! If she can "take water" as the Pastor says, and she's obviously taking water somehow or else she'd be dead, then the woman has brain function. Moreover, if she swallows the water when given to her, then killing her is murder, plain and simple.
The big question here is, is she indeed "taking water" as in swallowing it when offered.
I found out more about this case.
I reached the reporter on this story.
Jorge Mederos
He sounded very sincere and wants to see something done.
He visited the home yesterday.
Terri Schiavo’s case in Chicago
http://www.laraza.com/news.php?nid=21715
He said to use his cell phone# 773-617-4712
He also gave me the Pastor's number
Pastor Espinoza 708-423-5096
I just called the pastor. Very nice man. They are planning a service in front of the home on Sunday. He told me it was okay to include his phone number for more information on the service.
The service is at 3pm, Sunday in front of the home at
3939 W. 59th Place
Chicago, IL
Please help spread this story. Perhaps any Chicago Freepers could go to the service.
Thank you and God Bless you. You are good. I am glad to hear the reporter and the pastor are on top of this. Hopefully it will attract more media attention.
I did email this story to Priests for Life.
Please add me to your ping list. Thanks!
Good for you.
Can you think of any media in Chicago that might cover this story?
I just don't know how she's lasted this long.
The pastor and reporter were very nice.
Please send this story to anyone in the media you think could help.
Good work by both of you.
I contacted worldnetdaily.com and newsmax.com (newstips), jjohnson@cnsnews.com (does Terri stories) and David Limbaugh via Newsxmax.com contact page. Maybe David Limbaugh will tell his brother Rush, or do a story on it himself.
I think besides contacting our own reps, perhaps contacting other pro-lifers, like Tom DeLay, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, etc. might also be helpful. Perhaps they will write a bill to end this evil once and for all!!
I forgot to ask how she is getting the water. If she is swallowing or by IV.
Sorry.
Thanks alot!
I'm afraid that because it is the weekend, we may not get good coverage. So we need to contact more than our usual contacts to get someone to pick up on the story.
Any Church's in the area that might help us spread the word.
"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." I really get tired of this purposeful lying by journalism ... the case in Florida was unConstitutional in that a judge ordered Terri's execution without the authority to do that and Federal jurisdiction to review was in question (habeas corpus) so the Congress issued a bill that settled the habeas and granted review jurisdiction for a de novo hearing, and the President signed that bill because it was the right thing to do to bring Justice into line with caselaw, not to 'side with religious conservatives'. Our nation is in a Constitutional crisis because of a judiciary that feels it is an oligarchy and wantonly disregards the humane side of Justice, mercy, in favor of protecting process that effectively grants the judiciary an untouchable ruler status.
Ping.
Also add me to any ping lists.
Since Tom DeLay helped Terri, maybe he will help now.
Tom DeLay contact info:
Congressional phone - 202-225-5951
Congressional FAX - 202-225-5241
Majority Leaser Phone - 202-225-4000
Majority Leader FAX - 202-225-5117
Terri could swallow too. This is about dehumanizing a human being based on arbitrary definitions of 'human being'. It is creeping into mainstream right out of the dehumanization of the alive unborn ... they aren't 'human enough' by the arbitrary definitions of some therefore they are not worthy of protecting their inalienable right to remain alive.
GREAT contact info. by "Calpernia" for media and government in the U.S.A., as well as other countries, including our neighbors to the north.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1384195/posts?page=7#7
Please see Post #7 (as indicated).
Most profound!
How many Terri's are out there right now, suffering as she did??????
If they did they wouldn't care.
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.