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 was wondering about that myself. Ensure is good too.
I think the answer to the question proves this is murder/euthanasia. I am astonished at the cold-heartedness of my fellow citizens with regard to this issue.
The poor woman has gone 30 days without food, and they call it a compassionate act? Hitler couldn't have designed a better system to get rid of the elderly, infirm, and disabled. I see the death freaks weren't kidding when they said "it happens everyday, all across our nation." It's just sick and sad and it won't lead to anything good.
I predict, if we keep going down this path, that eventually, this euthanasia mindset will remove all incentive for trying to make any medical advances. What will be the point? They are already killing disabled infants in Holland.
A great darkness is on the horizon- Why can't people see it?
We need to contact our reps and ask them to enact some kind of bill to stop this evil from happening for once and for all.
Thanks Yellow.
FV,
I pinged a bunch of the people from Mae Magouirk's thread.
Here is who I pinged:
eeevil conservative;Wneighbor;Floriduh voter;Ohioan from Florida;dj MacWoW;Combat_boots;nicmarlo;Lil'bit;Netizen;russesjunjee;Maine-iac7;djreece;Blurblogger;Wampus SC;Kitty Mittens;sun;Velveeta;Calpernia;planekT;EternalVigilance;evilthatmendo;Awestruck;yellowdoghunter;mother22wife21;msp2004;little jeremiah;TigersEye;CobaltBlue;isrul;schmelvin;Saundra Duffy;freepertoo;BykrBayb;pickyourpoison;DBeers;Theodore R.;FR_addict;Netizen;GOP_Thug_Mom;Gondring;Fred Nerks;Ed_in_NJ;eccentric;joesbucks;Arthur Wildfire! March;sodpoodle;vaudine;markedmannerf;MHGinTN;johnb838; olliecollie;tuckrdout;tutstar;Lovergirl;Sally;Saundra Duffy
FR_addict did the validation and verification.
S/he wrote in his/her post # 47 :
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.
That is the verification I needed to take action. I do believe as you do and especially how well russesjunjee stated it for us, I cna't remember the Post #.
My bottom line is always Food and Hydration must be given to everyone unless the person has a document that is signed that says their wishes are to NOT receive food and water.
While I was sleeping many of you already swung into action, to those who id, YOU did the right thing, once we had verification from FR_addict, it is the right thing to do.
After this post I will throw out some specific action items in seperate posts and see who will step up and do at least one thing to help Mrs. Martinez.
Let's Roll!
Terri we have not forgotten you.
FR-addict,
Would you volunteer to be the FR contact with the family? You have already made the first calls, in this way we will not overwhelm them with all of us calling. I know eeevil conservative will say it was a lot of work, and it will be a big job, IF you agree to be "our" contact with the family. Not everyone has the time to do this so if you can't no one would think poorly of you becasue it will be time consuming.
Who will find out the correct entity in Chicago to file an Abuse Complaint for:
Clara Martinez, 39 years old and mother of two children aged five and seven years?
After finding out the entity would you please file a complaint?
Who will volunteer to do this?
Who will ping Illinois and Chicago Freepers and ask them to come to this thread? We will need their local expertice.
For example we need to find out the biggest and best talk radio shows in Chicago so that we can all e-mail and call them to have them pick up the story. There must be Talk Radio with wider audiences we need to find out who that is.
I can think of 1 Chicago Talk Radio station WGN. However we need the names of the different shows and the hosts of the shows. Phone numbers nad e-mails.
Hopefully Chicago Freepers an ehlp us with that information.
Who will contact Chicago area Freepers, who will volunteer, to do this 1 thing?
All,
Who will find out the contact information for the Alderman for Clara Martinez, make a phone call and and e-mail contact and then post the information for the rest of us?
Remember FR-Adict HAS verified that Clara Martinez is a Terri Schindler Starfish. Mrs. Mae Magouirk was the first Terri Schindler Starfish, now comes Clara marrtinez.
Who will volunteer to do this 1 action item?
My sympathy to the anguished family.
An important question is this: who is offering to take care of her and cover the expenses? If not, are the FReepers here willing to do it? What about the Minute Men? Would the Minute Men be willing to cover the expense? I personally cannot afford to help financially. I'm behind in my own medical bills.
I'll help as soon as that is resolved. So long as it isn't tax funded. Obviously, the husband is unwilling to cover the cost.
Sad FReegards....
bump!
agreed. What good is the ADA giving access to everywhere if the person can be held captive and starved by family members?
BTW, is Clara's mother willing to take custody of her? Perhaps the husband beleives he can't get a divorce in the Catholic Church, but that this is will leave him free. The article didn't mention his religion.
Maybe she's covered by insurance? Is there any policy that would cover the cost if she's fed?
It was working fabulously for them until Terri came along and woke about five million of us up."
Excellent post!
Great! Hopefully, one of them will pick up on the story.
"WorldNetDaily put the link up on their website.
http://www.laraza.com/news.php?nid=21715
Maybe later they will write their own story"
Good. That will help give the story a lot of exposure. Hopefully, they do write their own story. It will help answer everyone's questions about the case.
"We need to contact our reps and ask them to enact some kind of bill to stop this evil from happening for once and for all."
I started this petition to ask for protection of the disabled.
Protection for the Disabled - For Terri
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1374842/posts
I heard that some people thought the bill wasn't strong enough, but it may be all we can get for now. Please read the bill. If you want to sign, but don't think this bill is strong enough, please put it in the comment section.
I agree that we need something stronger. We need to talk to constitutional attorneys and see what can be done to add more protection for the disabled in a bill.
All your questions are good.
Finding the answers would make a great story, if someone would just follow through. Jorge Mederos, the reporter for the LaRaza, said he would be doing a follow-up story, but I know he wants the mainstream media to pick the story up.
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