Posted on 03/31/2011 11:55:18 AM PDT by wagglebee
On the anniversary of her 13-day starvation and dehydration death at the hands of her former husband, pro-life advocates are remembering Terri Schiavo and promising to help disabled patients like her.
“We honor Terri Schiavo today, by speaking at the Medical Ethics Symposium at Ave Maria School of Law. Her fight for Life reflects the importance of caring for those with special needs, especially with end of life decisions and prenatal diagnosis,” Hawkins said. “In both cases, pro-lifers need to stand for the most defenseless among us.”
“I have seen this with my own eyes when my son Gunner was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). During my second pregnancy with my son Bear, doctors told me that I should find out if he had CF in order to prevent me from having another child that would suffer with this condition,” Hawkins added.
She continued, “Bear, thankfully, was healthy, but the pressure that mothers face for prenatal diagnosis and aborting children with special needs is tremendous as 90% of Gunner’s peers that are diagnosed with CF in the womb are aborted. That’s an astounding statistic that calls us to action. We must stand for the most defenseless among us, those with special needs in hospitals as well as those in the womb.”
Meanwhile, the staff of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life legal group that provided help for Terri’s family during the ordeal, say they “will never forget Terri, nor will we forget her family’s valiant efforts to save her life.”
“Life Legal was privileged to assist the Schindler family in the fight for Terri’s life and as the years go by we continue to receive calls from families in similar situations,” the group told LifeNews. “LLDF board member Brian Chavez Ochoa litigated one such case on behalf of Suzanne Emrich. Ochoa filed a petition that requested the court order nutrition and hydration restored to her cousin, Janet Rivera, who for nine days was denied food and fluids. The petition was granted, and Ms. Rivera’s life was saved.”
Some of the referrals Life Legal receives come from The Life and Hope Network, formerly the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, which Terri’s family continues to help other patients like her.
The pro-life legal group encouraged people to look ahead to potential problems by putting together legal papers to protect the medical care and treatment they want.
“It bears repeating that one of the lessons we learned from Terri’s case is that should you become incapacitated by illness or disability, the person who is your decision-maker could mean the difference between life and death,” the group said. “We encourage you to honor Terri’s memory by protecting yourself with a protective medical decision document.”
The National Right to Life Committee also remembered Terri, saying, “Six years ago today, Terri Schiavo died by court-ordered starvation & dehydration. Remember Terri and see what you can do.”
Following the symposium, Ave Maria University will host the “The National Mass for Terri’s Day” at the Ave Maria Oratory, located near Naples, FL, marking the sixth anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death.
The International Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Terri Schindler Schiavo, and All of Our Vulnerable Brothers and Sisters (“Terri’s Day”) was established in 2007 and is observed each year on March 31, the date of Terri’s death.
The purpose of this day is to foster education, prayer, and activism regarding discrimination against the cognitively disabled, and advocacy for people in situations similar to what Terri and her family faced. 40 Days for Life, a community-based campaign that over a period of 40 days attempts to transform individuals and communities to recognize the value and dignity of human life, will be observing “Terri’s Day” with prayer along with countless others who will be remembering Terri on this day.
The MSM lied about how many people were cheering for her murder. The real poll was released after her death, showing that “only” 8% were in favor of murdering her. Still, 8% is a lot of people. And they were disgusting to watch, with their celebrations.
Thank you for the very informative link.
No one should ever be murdered, but least of all our returning injured troops. They give all and come home to a slaughter house? This cannot stand.
Wagglebee, you’re right about Mikey’s being a sociopath.
“She was dead long before the body stopped breathing.”
What qualifies you to make that determination?
Did you know that Mr. Schiavo contributed to Judge Greer’s political campaign before the judge’s final sentence? Did you do anything besides read newspapers that pushed for Mr. Schiavo to kill her simply because the Republican governor allegedly wanted to save her?
This was the Bush brothers’ biggest failure.
Nothing about the case disgusts me more than seeing people here echo the elitist hateful leftist media (I know, triple redundancy) without question.
No one human could stand hearing her cry out for water let alone brag about it.
and your definition of “dead” is?.......
What do you know that her family did not? Or her nurses?
Jeb Bush has her blood on his hands.
You’re welcome. The police presence in 2005 was daunting and shocking. They were arrogant at all times, even rude to Terri’s mother and sister. It was a little old police state. Terri’s family had to stay ONE FOOT away from her at all times or the cop in the room would have arrested them. It was barbaric and very Hitleresque. All the big Republicans in power had the power to save her. They let her be murdered.
Not just Jeb. Plenty of people had the authority to take Terri into custody.
Terri's murder demonstrated that the GOP's commitment to life was words and nothing more.
Terri was subpoenaed by Congress. Ordinarily when a person gets a congressional subpoena and doesn't show up federal marshals are dispatched to execute the subpoena, but they didn't do that with Terri even they knew exactly where she was and they had full legal authority to do so.
I wonder if poor Terri was a test case for single payer health “care” procedures. We should have fought harder.
The large, half inch thick lg poster sized photo of Terri and her mom was misplaced in 2005 and never seen again. We kept an eye on it in 2003. Some of my signs disappeared too while I was out of town and left signs at the vigil. My one regret is that we didn’t set up a Free Republic table. The circumstances with the police presence was so disturbing that it distracted me a great deal especially when they followed us home or had swat teams in friends’ apartment balconies. Amerika, the killing fields.
The MSM lied and they always lie, even Fox News. They pimped Terri’s story but in the end, they’ve never mentioned her since.
If you're going on live television, turn the tables on them! Jeb Bush is the ultimate coward. Never forget.
Judge Greer cheated in his re-election bid. But of course, the JQC panel looking into his cheating gave him a pass. Terri was already dead by that time. Greer’s retired now but hopefully, he thinks about Terri on days like today. George Greer, James Whittemore and many judges murdered Terri.
They would have never let you on the air if they’d known you supported Terri and opposed her murderers.
Jeb Bush will NEVER get my vote or a kind word. He’s a mamma’s boy and a coward.
That's a deranged comment. Get help.
The ONLY device hooked up to Terri was a feeding tube.
People can argue the criteria of death all they want, but if the brain and all major organs are working the person IS NOT DEAD.
I fought as hard as I could. My health took a hit from exhaustion and stress. Many of us were sick for six months to a year after Terri was murdered. The human toll of what they did to Terri went way beyond Terri. I made lifelong friends but it’s ashame in the United States, we have to fight evil, almost hand to hand combat to save innocent life.
If he does think of Terri, I believe it is with pleasure at the evil he committed. I think he’s stubborn, and will race through the gates of hell rather than repent.
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.