Terri Schiavo's Family Continues Effort to Block Jack Kevorkian UF Speech

Life News ^ | 9/3/07 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Gainesville, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The family of Terri Schiavo is continuing its efforts to block a speech by Jack Kevorkian scheduled for the middle of next month. The speech would be the first for the former assisted suicide crusader following his release from prison for killing a disabled man and showing the death on national television.

Kevorkian would speak to students at the University of Florida on October 11 and receive $50,000 for the talk, as long as his parole officers approve the trip.

The family of Terri Schiavo has been leading an effort to stop the speech by gathering petitions from concerned citizens so Kevorkian doesn't get a platform in their home state.

They don't want the former pathologist telling students that people with disabilities should be killed, like their sister, rather than receiving appropriate medical treatment or rehabilitative care.

Bobby Schindler, Terri's brother, told LifeNews.com, "We have collected thousands of petitions (and they are still coming in) to deliver to the Office of the President of the University of Florida."

"We're demanding the University rescind its offer to pay $50,000 for Kevorkian to address the students," he added.

"Despite the ongoing message of death spreading through our society and those, like Jack Kevorkian, who attempt to justify killing the most vulnerable among us, we are committed to fight against this death-obsessed culture and spread Terri's legacy of life, hope and love," Schindler explained.

He said there is still time for pro-life people and others worried about Kevorkian's pro-assisted suicide message to sign a petition asking the University of Florida to cancel the speech.

The petition can be found at the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation web site.

ACTION: You can also contact the University of Florida President J. Bernard Machen at 352-392-1311 or president@ufl.edu.

[Sun]

Of course, Alan Keyes’ words won’t turn me against him, because everyone has faults, and he is such a good man, but he should choose his words more carefully.

[Sun]

I e-mailed Laura Ingraham, and a local talk show host (who answers every e-mail) to get the word out about the Values Voters Debate tomorrow. I’d like as many folks to watch the debate, as possible.

Here’s some info again:

“Live video or audio streaming will be available online at http://www.afa.net on the day of the debate, Sept. 17 at 7:30 PM.

A Straw Poll—“More Important than Iowa”
to be conducted at Values Voter Presidential Debate
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, August 31, 2007. Delegates for the Values Voter Straw Poll have been selected by pro-family leaders such as Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, Don Wildmon Chairman of the American Family Association, Paul Weyrich, President of the Free Congress Foundation, Judge Roy Moore, Chairman of the Foundation for Moral Law, Rabbi Aryea Spero, of the Jewish Action Alliance, and Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who fought for the right of Military Chaplains to pray in Jesus name.

“Unlike other straw polls where candidates have bussed in supporters or paid for their tickets, the Values Voter Straw poll conducted at this Presidential debate promises results consistent with the largest voting block in America—the Values Voter,” said Mat Staver, Chairman of Liberty Counsel and member of the host committee. “This will be the most important straw poll yet.”

“I’m proud to be a part of this historic debate,” said Rick Scarborough, President of Vision America and host committee member, “hundreds of questions have been sent in by values voters who want answers to questions not asked in any other debate.”

http://www.afa.net/debate/registration.asp

[8mmMauser]

This story may have been seen in other forms. Here it is again...

..................................

The Vatican reaffirmed its teaching on the sanctity of human life by stating Friday that nutrition and hydration should be provided to individuals in persistent “vegetative state.”

Patients in a “vegetative state” are living human beings with inherent dignity and deserve the same basic care as other patients, responded the Holy See to the formal questioning of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Basic care includes nutrition and hydration, even when provided through artificial assistance.

“The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life,” responded the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department that oversees Catholic doctrine, according to the USCCB.

“It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient,” the Congregation added. “In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented.”

The Vatican further affirmed that a patient should receive ordinary care, such as food and water, regardless of prognosis of recovery and recommendation by physicians.

In response, the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation thanked the Holy See for reaffirming the moral need to care for people in “vegetative” state.

“It is our fervent hope that the clergy, religious and those who administer Catholic health care, as well as the laity who persistently ignored the basic right to life of our daughter and sister Terri…will begin to open their eyes and hearts to the immutable and incontrovertible truth re-affirmed by the Holy See today,” the foundation expressed in a statement...........................

Vatican: Feed 'Vegetative' People Regardless of Prognosis

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[8mmMauser]

Hear it from the brilliant intellectuals who know things we mere unwashed cannot hope to understand. But I do have a question that they must have forgotten to ask. Do we have faith in Our Lord? Oh, it is sort of mentioned in about the same context as wisdom from Woody Allen.

.............................

Consciousness is the last bastion of research: the ghost in the machinery of the brain we cannot see, but only dimly detect. And why it exists at all remains largely a mystery.

The young woman had survived the car crash
— after a fashion. Five months after parts of her brain had been crushed, she could open her eyes, but didn't respond to sights, sounds, or jabs. In the jargon of neurology, she was in a "persistent vegetative state".
In crueller everyday language, she was "a vegetable".

So imagine the astonishment of British and Belgian scientists when they scanned her brain using a kind of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) that detects blood flow to active parts of the brain. When they recited sentences, the parts involved in language lit up.
When they asked her to imagine visiting the rooms of her house, the parts involved in navigating space and recognising places ramped up. And when they asked her to imagine playing tennis, the regions that trigger movement joined in. Indeed, her scans were barely different from those of healthy volunteers. The woman, it appears, had glimmerings of consciousness. 

Try to imagine what it is like to be that woman. Do you appreciate the words and caresses of your distraught family, while racked with frustration at your inability to reassure them they are getting through? Or do you drift in a haze, springing to life with a concrete thought when a voice prods you, only to slip back into blankness? If we could experience this existence, would we prefer it to death? And if these questions have answers, would they change our policies toward unresponsive patients — making the heated political battle over the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo in 2005 look like child's play?

Ghosts in the machine

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[8mmMauser]

Lest anyone think I am picking on Fred Thompson, I am merely reporting what appears in the media about Terri. The news carries it again as a significant issue yet another day. Time and again it links Fred. This is commentary feedback from the New York Daily News.

...........................

On Hillary etc. etc.
Jersey City: Hillary Clinton: "I gave the $850,000 back." Fred Thompson: "I'm allegedly pro-life but still can't seem to remember Terri Schiavo." Rudy Giuliani: "I was present at The Pile like the firefighters but miraculously didn't get WTC respiratory syndrome." Tell me again why I should bother to vote?

Voice of the People

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[8mmMauser]

Somebody has tattooed Terri's Legacy onto Fred Thompson as a Presidential Candidate identifier. It begins to look as though ignorance of Terri is a shorthand for Fred, as cross-dressing brands Rudy. These tattoos don't wash off with your usual hand cleaner.

Must Do Better

Thompson has stumbled when unexpected issues arise -- his non-attendance of church, the Senate's efforts to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who was brain-dead, or confusion over some of his past lobbying activities.

During these next four months, he has to be more adroit, and on the big stuff he must convince voters he's as much of a leader and tax-cutter as Giuliani, more genuine on social issues such as abortion than Romney, and as steadfast on national security as McCain.

Thompson Finds South Carolina `Ain't Beanbag':

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[PrepareToLeave]

A little off subject, but my husband said he heard Chris Matthews report that when Fred Thompson was asked about the Terri Schiavo case he said something like ... I'm not familiar with the case, wasn't that a long time ago?

His arrogance is being interpreted as charisma. Personally, I believe elitist arrogance has been dripping from the oval office for decades. He could have answered the question instead of avoiding it with a smirk.

[8mmMauser]

The New York Sun echoes...

Mr. Thompson's commitment to federalism has prevented him from endorsing the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would define marriage as between one man and one woman in the federal Constitution. His federalism trumps his social conservatism. Mr. Thompson says he believes marriage law should be decided by the states. Even though this position puts him at odds with some powerful social conservatives he'd like to see on board with his campaign, he's mostly stuck to his guns on the matter. In Florida last week, Mr. Thompson again disappointed some members of the right by saying that he disagreed with Congress's intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo. "Local matters generally speaking should be left to the locals," Mr. Thompson told the St. Petersburg Times. His spokesman was even more explicit to our Ryan Sager, saying that Mr. Thompson "believes that it was a decision for the family to make under state law, so there was no role for the federal government to play."

Fred the Federalist

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[8mmMauser]

And in Lakeland, complete with video and a logo displaying "Core Beliefs" we see it again...

There were no snappy quips or bold stands on issues that they had come to hear, but faithful followers that they were, they walked en masse with him to his campaign bus that displayed the logo, "United by Our Core Beliefs."

Thompson avoided mention of what are being called minor flubs during his successful Florida tour. On Thursday, he told reporters that he did not know enough about either subject when asked about Florida's property insurance crisis and whether Congress should have intervened in the Terri Schiavo case.

Fans Greet GOP's Thompson During Stop in Lakeland

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[8mmMauser]

It would make a good bumper sticker. Thread from Kaslin. Thanks, wagglebee, for the ping.

At this very moment one of the most liberal organizations in our nation has fraudulent papers before a court in the Midwest awaiting permission to begin the systematic slaughter of innocent children on Tuesday.

Using false pretense, misdirected answers on applications, and fraudulent forms Planned Parenthood is awaiting word to see if it will be allowed to open a super-butchery in Aurora Illinois this coming Tuesday. The situation highlights a new trend for the tax-payer subsidized organization that is now resorting to lying to municipalities and their populations in order to set up shop, hack women's uteruses and slice children's bodies like lunchmeat. Some of the children just inches from birth.

Liberals Lie, Children Die

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[8mmMauser]

Chuck Colson on perseverance in a thread by wagglebee...

Four months ago the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. As I said at the time, banning this unspeakably barbaric form of abortion was a victory—albeit a small one—for the pro-life cause. It represented another step toward the end of abortion-on-demand in this country.

Certainly the nation’s pro-abortion forces saw it that way as well. The near-hysterical reaction of the Center for Reproductive Rights was typical: “The U.S. Supreme Court,” it said, “effectively overturned 30 years of precedent and announced that women’s health is no longer a paramount concern . . . the Court’s decision paves the way for state and federal legislatures to enact additional bans on abortions, including those that doctors say are safe and medically necessary.”

So, while pro-lifers celebrated a small victory, pro-abortion forces signaled that they were not going to stand idly by while the forces for life steadily chip away at abortion-on-demand.

Chuck Colson: Stopping at Nothing (The Partial-Birth Abortion Loophole)

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[8mmMauser]

More about the Vatican perspective in a thread by wagglebee...

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has formulated responses to questions presented by His Excellency the Most Reverend William S. Skylstad, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a letter of July 11, 2005, regarding the nutrition and hydration of patients in the condition commonly called a "vegetative state."

The object of the questions was whether the nutrition and hydration of such patients, especially if provided by artificial means, would constitute an excessively heavy burden for the patients, for their relatives, or for the health care system, to the point where it could be considered, also in the light of the moral teaching of the Church, a means that is extraordinary or disproportionate and therefore not morally obligatory.

(Vatican) Commentary on Artificial Hydration and Nutrition

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[8mmMauser]

I hope you didn't mind my borrowing your post in the other thread I linked above. It is fitting for here, too!

................................

To: wagglebee

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Euthanasia

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.

Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.

14 posted on 09/16/2007 5:14:05 PM EDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)

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[8mmMauser]

As Terri lay suffering, the Pope's health was failing. Thread by wagglebee.

Vatican City - Doctors assisting Pope John Paul II in his final days never suspended medical treatment and the pontiff did not ask them to do so, his personal physician said.

Pro-euthanasia activists in Italy have said the pope refused medical treatment such as artificial respiration and feeding because he wanted to be allowed to die.

The Catholic Church forbids euthanasia, which has been at the centre of a heated debate in Italy in recent months.

'Pope didn't seek euthanasia'

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[8mmMauser]

Abortion "rights" in a thread by rhema. Thanks, narses, for the ping.

New Jersey’s supreme court has just decided that, as far as state law is concerned, an abortionist can give false information to a woman trying to decide whether to have an abortion.

Is there a “baby in there”? That’s what Rose Acuna wanted to know from her obstetrician-gynecologist. She was six to eight weeks along at the time. “Don’t be stupid. It’s only blood,” the physician, Sheldon Turkish, allegedly replied. (Turkish argues that he probably said, “It’s just tissue.”) So, three days later, Acuna went ahead with the abortion.

An Abortionist’s Right to Deceive Women

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[8mmMauser]

oops! missed thanking you for above ping.

[Rita Hayworth]

"NOBODY needs to hear this message of death."The last thing I want is someone like you telling me what I need to hear.

I totally agree. Who is this guy telling the world what they can and cannot hear? Gee wiz.

[floriduh voter]

Terri's been in the St. Pete Times on a regular basis. Too bad they did everything to help JUDGE GREER instead of to protect Terri's basic civil rights.

MEANWHILE, another Rogue Judge in Florida. JUDGE HAYWORTH OF DESOTO COUNTY. He's ruining people's lives as fast as he can.

http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/article/action/ShowMedia/id/3820

[floriduh voter]

Wouldn't t'wit appreciate the irony? The bad guys always get caught in the end.

There's http://www.judgegeorgegreer.com (lotsa bad guys at this site) and http://www.michaelschiavo.org (really bad husband). What a coincidence that HINO and OJ both are big Las Vegas bottom dwellers IMO.

By the way, FRED THOMPSON IS HOOKING up with GUV. CRIST. If Thompson is proclaiming he's a Christian, he's with CHARLIE, THE BIG TERRI KILLER tomorrow, our beloved death cult governor.

[Dante3]

This does not surprise me considering how the MSM ignored and distorted Terri’s case. Hannity and Nancy Grace supported her. Not many others.