Bay News 9 is doing a good job locally but the other stations are lukewarm. FV
Catholic or not, you can sign this petition to help save Terri. { republic: I am not a Catholic, but I am going to sign this petition-- read the fantastic letter from the Your Catholic Voice Movement below- hope all here will sign the petition!)
From: Deacon Keith Fournier
Subject: YCV Has Received No Response FROM the ACLU Over Terri Schaivo
YCV Has Received No Response FROM the ACLU Over Terri
Schaivo
The fight to save Terri Shiavo is not over. We must continue our support and prayers for her. Toward the end of this email, I have included information on the teaching of the Church on this critical issue. What the Church says.
YCV supporter’s vocal support played a role in getting “Terri’s Law” passed. We must continue to show public support for Governor Jeb Bush in order to counter those vocal organizations advocating her coerced death.
Please add your name to the petition to save Terri by
Clicking Here:
http://www.yourcatholicvoice.org/index.php?id=petition&petition=3
Her estranged husband, now joined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has filed a lawsuit to overturn “Terri’s Law” - even though it was lawfully and overwhelmingly passed by the Florida legislature and properly signed by Governor Jeb Bush. That law gave the Governor additional authority to end the deliberate starvation of Terri.
There was a set back this week when a Florida judge denied Terri’s parents the right to intervene on Terri’s behalf in this suit. The American Center for Law and Justice had sought to represent them. Instead, the ACLJ has filed a friend of the court brief on their behalf. Other groups may also file such briefs. Terri’s parents are also trying to ensure that a fair and impartial guardian is appointed to replace Terri’s husband. Her husband is also trying to intimidate doctors and hospitals to prevent them from caring for her through threats of further lawsuits if they do.
It was Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who spoke with such simplicity concerning the horror of killing a child in the first home of the whole human race, a mother's womb: ``It is poverty to kill a child so that you may live as you wish'' Will we soon live in a world where the disabled may be killed for the same reason? That is really what is behind the effort to end Terri’s life.
Many the world over felt so powerless while, with the protection of the State, Terri Schiavo was nearly euthanized.
Make no mistake; Terri was NOT “naturally” dying. She is a brain damaged, disabled woman whose family loves her and wants to care for her. Many people like Terri are lovingly cared for on a daily basis. However, in this case, she had become “inconvenient”. So, she was almost killed with the assistance of a Court Order requiring the withdrawal of food and water.
Eventually, prayers, hard, effective battling by Terri’s parents through her able lawyers and a groundswell of citizen activism, including your prayers and efforts, led to the passage of “Terri’s law” and the Governor finally did what was right. Terri was saved from a sure death by starvation and dehydration. However, the battle only subsided for a while and we must keep praying and struggling.
Prayer vigils are still being held while legal efforts to end her life continue. The forces of the “death on demand” movement will not give up. The battle rages and the Courts are once again being used in an effort to literally kill Terri. It is that simple and that horrible!
Please forward this E-Mail to your family, friends and neighbors. Terri needs as much support as you can muster.
I challenged the American Civil Liberties Union to specify how anyone’s civil liberties - EXCEPT TERRI SCHIAVO’S - are being violated in this vital “right-to-live” case in Florida. I have not heard from them.
As a constitutional lawyer, I think the suggestion that the civil liberties of Schiavo’s husband Michael have somehow been violated is absolutely absurd.
If anyone’s human rights and civil liberties have been violated here it has been Terri Schiavo’s. The Right to life from conception to natural death and the liberty to be protected from efforts to take your life because your disability makes you somehow “inconvenient” is what is really at issue here.
I do not care what you call it.
The masters of verbal engineering are all over the media these days calling murder, "mercy", hiding their intentions under noble sounding appeals to that "quality of life" mantra that is often a subterfuge. Intentionally withholding food and water to make someone die - is what it is- euthanasia.
One would think an organization like the ACLU, which purports to defend Civil Liberties, would be fighting to protect Terri’s right to live and not endorsing an effort to euthanize her through withholding food and water.
Now, the ACLU is concerned that other state legislatures will adopt laws similar to “Terri’s Law” in Florida. This only raises even more questions about this increasingly controversial organization and its true agenda.
The ACLU has recently been at the forefront of promoting both policy and legal efforts to define “freedom” as a raw power over others who are weaker; for example children in the first home of their mothers womb, and to stifle the voice of those who disagree with their notion of the role of people of faith in our. Now, they are taking on the disabled. In some ways, this move by them is not a surprise to us. I will debate them on this issue anytime, anywhere.
Fortunately other disabled people are rallying around Terri, including people who have been in similar “hopeless” situations and made partial recoveries. Read this Newsday article for background.
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-usschi023527678nov06,0,3738951.story?coll=ny-health-headlines
What the Church says
Some people have written and suggested that the Church sometimes “permits” the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration in cases where it is only prolonging an inevitable death.
Please understand this vital fact Terri is not dying.
What is being proposed here is to kill her by this action. She is a disabled person who simply cannot feed herself.
There are many disabled people who cannot feed themselves.
We care for them and help them because we are a compassionate people and recognize their right to live!
What is actually being sought is euthanasia.
Here is a paragraph from the Bishop's website that applies:
"The harsh reality is that some who propose withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from certain patients do directly intend to bring about a patient's death, and would even prefer a change in the law to allow for what they see as more "quick and painless" means to cause death.
[13] In other words, nutrition and hydration (whether orally administered or medically assisted) are sometimes withdrawn not because a patient is dying, but precisely because a patient is not dying (or not dying quickly) and someone believes it would be better if he or she did, generally because the patient is perceived as having an unacceptably low "quality of life" or as imposing burdens on others."
You can read the rest of the document at
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/euthanas/nutqa.htm
Please add you name to the petition to save Terri by clicking here:
http://www.yourcatholicvoice.org/index.php?id=petition&petition=3 And please forward this to your family, friends and neighbors. Terri needs as much support as you can muster.
Deacon Keith Fournier
Co-Founder, Your Catholic Voice Movement