Thank you for a brilliant summation of this case.
It seems so easy to understand,yet so many here fail in grasping that simple set of facts.
It would seem we have a lot of brain impaired people roaming around,I hope for their sake they don't live in Florida and speak in low voices most of the time so as not to be overheard.
I think what makes this issue so volatile is the fact that this is the perfect example of faith clashing with state.
On the one hand, we have the fact that Michael is the LEGAL guardian - he is, unfortunately, by virtue of a marriage that still exists.
On the other hand, we have a spiritual atrocity occuring, whereby a woman's life is being thrown out like so much trash.
The question then, is this: What weighs more than the other? Catholics are taught that if the rule of law is immoral, there is an obligation to disobey it when directly confronted with it. e.g. a Catholic nurse in Terri Schiavo's hospice would be under the pain of mortal sin if she assisted in removing the feeding tube - even if ordered by the courts. The nurse has no choice, spiritually, but to defy the order and not participate. Whether or not she wishes to engage in further civil disobedience and disrupt the removal by others, is up to her.
So here we have Michael Schiavo. He has the rule of law on his side that says, "go ahead and pull the tube". He does NOT have the rule of God (at least by Catholic theology) to follow through and do it. He is under the pain of mortal sin even though the state condones it.
Not all of us are Catholic, not all of us believe the same things. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Michael Schiavo is defying canon law by cooperating with a civil ruling that facilitates an evil. Catholics have a right to be outraged. Our consciences should always be guided by the laws of God. At the same time, it doesn't give us the right to declare that Schiavo has given up his rights, when he hasn't. That is a fact. Our theological argument against euthanasia is rock solid. The civil law runs rampant over the laws of God in many ways, every day. We cannot convince the court - as it is at this moment - to act any way other than it has been programmed to act by foolish and disastrous past rulings and the subversion of judicial nominees by the Democratic wing of Congress.
In other words, we can be mad as hell - and we should be - but it's OUT OF OUR HANDS. It's in God's hands now. We have to give it to God. Whatever the outcome, if Terri is allowed to die, she will go to paradise. You, me and everyone else, however, have our marching orders to make certain this NEVER happens again. And that comes by taking the gift of faith and our respect for the laws of God, and doubling and tripling our efforts to get judges and legislators in place who will reflect what we believe this nation was founded on - the principals of Judeo-Christianity.
It still smacks of something Hitler would be proud of.
But that's my opinion and I'm going to use what I've been given by God to convince people that this should never happen again.