Remembering Terri Schiavo: A Five-Year Anniversary Marked By Cruel Bigotry

Townhall ^ | 3/31/10 | Bobby Schindler

[wagglebee]

March 31st will mark the five-year anniversary of the needless death of my sister, Terri Schiavo.

It is difficult to believe this much time has passed since that horrible event which will be forever seared into my memory.

I wish I could say things have changed for the better since my sister’s death or that people with cognitive disabilities are now better protected in response to the horror she had to endure.

Tragically, however, it seems the rights of the brain-injured, elderly and others are still being violated.

All one has to do is look at what happened just last week. On March 21st, Fox aired an episode of The Family Guy that featured a "sketch" called "Terri Schiavo: The Musical." I was astonished at the producer’s cruel bigotry directed towards my sister and all cognitively disabled people.

Sadly, although more offensive than what my family has seen in the past from the media since Terri died, the bald-faced ignorance expressed in that episode of The Family Guy was nothing new. In fact, all signs indicate that we have embarked on a very disturbing path.

There is no disputing that Terri’s life – and death – had an astonishing impact on our nation. Our family still receives letters, emails and phone calls almost every day from people who tell us how Terri’s story touched them in profound ways, particularly when they come to know the facts.

Indeed, it was because of my family’s experience trying to protect Terri that we realized how all persons with similar cognitive disabilities are completely vulnerable to state laws that currently make it “legal” to deny them the most basic care – food and water.

This horrifying realization was why we established Terri’s Foundation. In Terri’s name, my family now works to protect tens of thousands of people with similar brain-injuries from having their fundamental freedoms taken away by an aggressive anti-life movement hell-bent on portraying severely disabled and otherwise vulnerable human beings as nothing more than “useless eaters”.

If the amount of phone calls we receive is any indication, what happened to Terri has become common. I think most people have no idea how our individual rights to make decisions about basic care like food and water, antibiotics, etc., have been so dramatically eroded. This not only includes family members advocating for loved ones but also protecting oneself by medical directive.

We recently heard from a woman whose mother was being cared for at a hospice facility. The daughter was powerless to effectively advocate for her mother because she had no power of attorney.

Even though she was her mother’s next-of-kin, and despite the fact her mother was begging her for food, the daughter was not allowed to feed her. It had been determined the mother was no longer able to swallow. But the daughter said her mother was eating safely just prior to being sent to hospice and questioned whether she still could. The mother was not given a feeding tube, and died just a short time later.

Perhaps the “Death Panels” Sarah Palin spoke of sounded like bombastic language. Yet when Palin added this term into our nation’s debate on health care, I believe she did not realize that many hospitals and facilities already have something frighteningly similar. Ethics committees are making many life and death decisions about patients, including whether to withhold simple provisions.

In a seemingly clandestine way, these ethics committees – comprised of medical and legal professionals – are empowering facilities to make life and death decisions independent of the family or a person’s own wishes.

The chilling stories we receive make it clear few citizens have any idea how vulnerable they are when it comes to judgments left in the hands of these ethics committees and facilities. And with the federal government now controlling our health care, there is no reason not to believe that these types of committees won’t become nationalized. Particularly when a health care system has been sabotaged by cost factors and quality of life judgments.

When our office receives phone calls from people fighting for their loved ones, I cannot help but look back and reflect on the courage of many individuals and groups who advocated on behalf of my sister.

As time has passed, however, many of those people, organizations and politicians – even many of our own friends – have fallen silent. Many who once ardently supported Terri’s life no longer actively educate or advocate for vulnerable patients.

With each troubling phone call from a frantic family, I am reminded there are countless other Terris in desperate need of our voice. Terri’s Foundation has been successful helping to save some, but sadly so many others have fallen victim.

I understand our nation faces many challenges today that may threaten our very existence. But how can we claim to be a just and honorable society, deserving of any blessing at all, if we richly reward hateful bigots while refusing to protect our weakest citizens?

Moreover, how did the tremendous courage and kindness we saw when we were fighting for Terri’s life have faded? How can any of us abandon this issue when all signs are that things are getting worse?

There are still many who support our efforts, who recognize the erosion of the value and dignity of the medically weak and who believe in protecting the life and liberty of all human beings.

The problem is their voices are often drowned out by the din of the pro-death lobby that claims death is the only dignified answer to a complicated problem.

Meanwhile the pro-death movement has not fallen silent. Rather, it has grown more vocal. The issue for them did not die with Terri. Indeed, their success in killing her seems to have only bolstered their determination to gain wider acceptance among the American people.

There will always be people with needs, there will always be others who work tirelessly to help them, and there will always be those who turn the other way; or worse – sit behind their drawing tables, disseminating cruel bigotry and hatred toward the disabled and vulnerable.

Until we all recognize that our inherit worth doesn’t change because of life’s circumstances, illness, disability or other events, we will continue to rob our most vulnerable of their right to fairness, justice and the ability to guide their own course in life.

[wagglebee]

Italy seems to have embraced Zero's belief that a baby who is slated for abortion should be killed no matter what.

Threads by NYer and me.

Italian Government Investigates Baby Left to Die after Failed Abortion

ROSSANO, Italy, April 27, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Italian government has announced that it will launch an investigation of a hospital where a premature baby born alive following an attempted abortion was left to die for hours, before receiving medical attention thanks to the intervention of a priest.

"If the reports are correct we are talking about a grave case of therapeutic abandonment of a very premature newborn, probably also with some form of disability: an act against the sense of human pity but also against all ethics of medical practice," said Eugenia Roccella, the Italian Subsecretary of Health.

"The Ministry of Health will send its inspectors to Rossano Calabro hospital to see that the case is effectively addressed, and to verify that respect has been shown for law 194, which prohibits abortion when there is the possibility of an autonomous life for the fetus, and allows it only if the continuation of the pregnancy is dangerous to the life of the woman," Roccella added.

The baby, who was at 22 weeks gestation, was aborted in a hospital in Rossano reportedly because he suffered from a deformity, although the mother has also claimed that the pregnancy posed a medical risk. After surviving the doctor's attempt to kill him, the infant was given no medical treatment and was left to die.

According to reports in the Italian media, the situation was discovered by a priest, who had heard of the abortion and had come to pray for the soul of the infant.

However, he was shocked to find that the child was moving and breathing, wrapped in a sheet and lying unattended with his umbilical cord still attached.  He reported the situation to the doctors, who then placed the child in intensive care in a neighboring hospital.  However, he died only a few hours later.

In addition to the investigation by the national health ministry, local officials in Rossano are also reportedly investigating the case to determine if there was negligence on the part of doctors.

Many similar cases of children left to die after surviving abortions have been documented in the American media as well, prompting the passage of the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was signed into law in 2002. Barack Obama, the current U.S. president, had infamously opposed a state version of the bill while serving as a senator in Illinois.

__________________________________________________

Baby that survived botched abortion was rejected for cleft lip and palate

The 22-week infant was found breathing a day after the operation. He died one day later in intensive care at a hospital in the mother's home town of Rossano, in southern Italy.

The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after prenatal scans revealed that the foetus had a cleft lip and palate, according to reports in the Italian media. The condition is treatable with surgery.

The baby - weighing just 11oz - survived the procedure, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabro hospital, but was left by doctors to die.

He was discovered alive the following day – some 20 hours after the operation – by Father Antonio Martello, the hospital chaplain, who had gone to pray beside his body.

He found that the baby, wrapped in a sheet with his umbilical cord still attached, was moving and breathing.

The priest raised the alarm and doctors immediately arranged for the infant to be taken to a specialist neo-natal unit at the neighbouring Cosenza hospital, where he died on Monday morning.

The story has caused outrage in Italy, where many have called for the country's abortion laws to be changed.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...

__________________________________________________

 

Aborted baby in Italy survives for two days (the details are now emerging)

Rome, Italy, May 1, 2010 / 11:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Antonio Martello, a hospital chaplain was shocked to see that the baby boy he was praying over was still breathing, a day after he had been aborted at 22 weeks. The case of a "therapeutic" abortion in Rossano Calabro, Italy raises questions about the reliability of sonographies in diagnosing deformities.

Due to a perceived, and as yet unspecified, malformation of the fetus, possibly a cleft palate, the mother had solicited the abortion at a public hospital in the southern Italian city.

The "interruption" of the pregnancy was carried out in the early afternoon of April 24, Fr. Martello told Italy's Il Foglio newspaper this week. The day after, at 11 a.m., he went to pray for the child as he said he always does with aborted and stillborn children.

Noting movement under the sheet with which the babe was covered, the chaplain removed it and saw the child kick. "When I called for help and the pediatrician and anesthetist arrived ... they also observed that the baby was breathing, moving and that (his) heart was beating," he told Il Foglio.
"What I witnessed last Sunday had never happened to me before," said the priest, who was unable to make further comment due his involvement as a witness in the investigation of the case.

According to neonatal specialists, reported the newspaper, vital signs are so subtle in a 22-week old child that only an expert could recognize them. Due to the lack of pulmonary development, the child should not even be able to breathe unassisted, "not for an entire, very long day, but not even for an hour," they reported.

Director of Neonatal Studies at the University of Turin, Claudio Fabris, told Il Foglio that it is "in consideration of the fleeting possibility of survival at 22 gestational weeks (that) many health companies ... have established internal regulations that prohibit therapeutic abortions after that period."

The possibility of survival at that age has seen an increase in recent years in Italy. According to the national statistics, in 2008 five babies of 41 born prematurely at 22 weeks survived, in the previous three years only one survivor was recorded in 28 cases.

"As you can see," said Fabris, "the numbers are extremely scant. But we have the obligation to treat the newborn in extreme prematurity as any person in risky conditions and we must assist him or her adequately."

According to Italian law, if the possibility exists that the fetus can live autonomously, an "interruption" can only take place when the mother's life is in serious danger and in that case doctor's must adopt "every appropriate measure" to safeguard the life of the child.

There is no specific time limit established within the law, which, as the newspaper explained, allows space for medical advancements that increase the possibility of the child's survival at ever younger periods of gestation.

Obstetricians and Gynecologists from the Medical Colleges in four major Roman universities affirmed this law in a statement in 2008 in which they sustained that from "the moment of birth the law attributes the fullness of the right to life and, therefore, to healthcare."

It is further stated in the joint document that doctors must also do everything possible to save the child who survives an abortion, "even if the mother is against it, because the interests of the newborn prevail."

The right to abandon the child at birth is also guaranteed by law, underlines Il Foglio, but "health personnel have the duty to assist the aborted baby, when he or she can survive."

In the case of the child from Rossano Calabro, after spending his first day of life under sheet, the baby died in an incubator in the intensive neonatal therapy unit at a second hospital in nearby Cosenza the next day.

Doctors predicted that his age could have been underestimated thus explaining his development and subsequent survival.
 
A margin of error of four or five days, Dr. Fabris said, is "fundamental for explaining the survival of that baby."

Although it is still not known, probability suggests that the malformation of the baby may not have been serious. Geneticist Bruno Dallapiccola, scientific director of Rome's Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital, told Il Foglio that in his experience of thousands of cases, "80 percent of the pathologies found sonographically, after a competent genetic consultancy, reveal themselves to be completely compatible with the normality of the unborn child."

After sonographies in other institutions, he said, "couples arrive to me terrorized, with diagnoses almost always, fortunately, without true consequences."

An autopsy is currently being carried out which will shed more light on the case from Rossano, possibly clarifying the age of the child and the nature and gravity of his malformation. In the meantime, a judicial process is being brought against a doctor and two nurses for voluntary homicide.

Archbishop of Rossano, Santo Marciano, told Vatican Radio this week that such a case is "something truly aberrant.

"I define all this as barbaric," he said. "I believe that non-Christians might also be in agreement on this."

Inspectors from the ministry of health will begin their investigation of the case on Monday.

[wagglebee]

More "compassion" and "death with dignity" from the Dignitas murder facility.

Thread by NYer.

Gruesome Find: 300 Urns Dumped in Lake Zurich, Likely by Swiss Suicide Facility

ZURICH, April 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Local authorities in Zurich are asking questions about the assisted suicide facility Dignitas, after 300 urns containing human ashes were found in Lake Zurich this week. The urns bear the logo of the Nordheim crematorium, which is used by Dignitas.

The Daily Telegraph quoted Roman Ruetz, a police diver, who said, “After 50 we stopped counting. They lay there in a big heap.”

The urns were discovered accidentally by divers from a rescue service on Lake Zurich who were looking for a sunshade that had broken off one of their boats. After retrieving 13 urns, they notified the Environment Agency.

The Swiss Environment Agency has filed a criminal complaint against “unknown persons for disturbance of the dead.” Wolfgang Bollack said, “The retrieved urns are being kept in a place respecting their dignity.”

Police spokesman Stefan Oberlin said, “We believe they came from the Zürich Oberland as it says on the urns – which is where Dignitas is based.”

Former Dignitas employee Soraya Wernli, told media that dumping urns into Lake Zurich was a standard procedure of the facility. She said that Dignitas director Ludwig Minelli has put at least 300 urns into the lake himself, but “later asked his daughter and another member of staff to do it.” Minelli has refused to comment.

It is illegal in Switzerland to dispose of a large number of urns containing human remains without a commercial license, a criminal offense that carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

The discovery has garnered much press coverage in the UK after it was revealed that as many as 115 British people have gone to Dignitas to commit suicide. The euthanasia and assisted suicide lobby has capitalised on the number, arguing that the facility’s popularity indicates a need for legalization in Britain.

The Daily Mail quoted Lesley Close, whose brother John took his own life at Dignitas in 2003, who said, “This underlines the need for change in British law on the subject of assisted suicide.

“We should be absolutely certain what happens to the remains of our loved ones after they are dead. We need our own laws.”

Others, however, have questioned what the find says about Dignitas’ treatment of the dead.

Nicolas Mori, a spokesman for the Zurich church, said: “If burials on the water are conducted on a commercial basis and any promised ceremony is not carried out – that is just completely unacceptable.

“It is like getting rid of the rubbish, just getting it out of sight and out of mind, and we condemn it totally.”
 
Conservative bioethicist Wesley Smith questioned the outrage directed at the alleged urn-dumping activities of Dignitas. “So, facilitating the suicides of these people is perfectly fine, but burying them wrongly – that gets Minelli in trouble!” he lamented. “The word irony fails to adequately characterize the situation."

“Assisted suicide advocates often claim the mantle of compassion – as Minelli often has. But as with Kevorkian, that is often a mask for indifference and abandonment.

[wagglebee]

This is exactly what people need to see.

Thread by GonzoII.

Dutch Pro-Lifers Erect Display with 30,000 Unborn Baby Models

April 30, 2010, (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the decriminalization of abortion in the Netherlands, the Dutch Pro-Life organization Cry for Life laid down 30,000 models of a 10-week-old unborn child. The display was erected in the Square next to the government buildings in centre of The Hague, the Netherlands, on Wednesday, April 28.

On that date in 1981, the Dutch Senate approved the Pregnancy Termination Bill, by the narrowest possible margin of thirty-three votes in favor to thirty-two against. The bill had been adopted earlier by the House of Representatives.

In the Netherlands, which is well known for its liberal views, each year the lives of approximately 30,000 unborn are terminated in the womb and discarded as medical waste. Abortion is possible up to the 24th week, with the result that foreign women often visit Holland for late-term abortions not allowed in the countries of their origin.

Many tourists paused and watched the growing field of models, while expressing their approval. People attracted by the beautiful spring weather left the Square after pausing and listening to explanations as to what effect abortion has on mothers, fathers and children.

However, as a pro-life representative attempted to explain the issue to a group of forty junior students, he was interrupted by their teacher, who ordered her students to continue their walk.

Prayer and worship was lead by Cry for Life President, Dr. L.P. Dorenbos. He said that he is convinced that the blood of the aborted lives cries out for vengeance and is determined to see an end to abortion by prayer and fasting. Later Astrid Mechielsen gave her testimony of how her abortion affected her life and the life of her six-month-old son Daniel.

During the demonstration police removed a small group of pro-abortion counter-protesters, who shouted slogans against Cry for Life.

[wagglebee]

The media is once again targeting the Schindlers for refusing to be silent about Terri's murder.

Both threads by me.

Wesley J. Smith: I Stand in Solidarity With the Schindlers Against Sleazy Media Attack

Michael Schiavo has threatened to sue Terri Schiavo’s family because they named their non profit after her–the “Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.”  (MS claims he owns the name. ) And, true to form, an ever compliant media fronted his cause with an unfair attack on the family.  From the story:

Schiavo’s widower, Michael Schiavo, says the family should be ashamed of what they are doing. He adds if Terri ever knew this was happening she’d be horrified. Michael Schiavo is talking about the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. While Terri Schiavo’s brother Bobby says the organization is set up to help families in similar situations, Michael Schiavo says he doesn’t believe it. Instead Schiavo says they are using their deceased sister’s name to make money.

What Michael Schiavo “believes” is irrelevant and beside the point.  Had the reporters wanted to find out the kind of help the foundation offers others, producers could have called me or a myriad of others active in this field, who are quite aware of the selfless giving and effort each surviving member of Terri’s family offers to others.  Indeed, I have personal knowledge of case after case in which the Schindlers worked selflessly–and without financial compensation of any kind–to assist family members save their cognitively disabled loved ones from suffering the same dehydration fate as Terri.  The Lauren Richardson food and fluids dispute and the Andrea Clarke futile care case are just two that come to mind.

And as for profiteering–Bobby Schindler’s salary is $37,500 annually, and all speaking fees he receives go to the foundation.  His sister Suzanne, makes less and is 14 months in arrears in receiving her compensation.  It is also worth noting, that after receiving complaints, the IRS investigated the foundation and gave it a clean bill of health in 2008.

The hatred of this family is pathological and obsessive.

On a personal note: I know Bobby Schindler very well and consider him one of the most decent human beings I have ever met.  His sister Suzanne is a peach, and mother Mary doesn’t have a vindictive or nasty bone in her body.  Father Bob gave everything he had to save his daughter’s life, and seeing her die slowly by intentional dehydration when the family was prepared to love and care for her the rest of her life, destroyed his health and eventually took his life.  I stand wholeheartedly and unreservedly with the Schindler family and against the continual calumny mounted against them.

___________________________________________________

Media Attack on the Schiavo Foundation: Let’s Make Disability Go Away

Killing defenseless people with disabilities is not very difficult. They can’t fight back and, in many instances, either they have no advocates, or those advocates are overwhelmed in the unrelenting drumbeat for death.

It’s this latter point that Terri Schiavo’s family has had to live with since her untimely and completely unnecessary legal execution in 2005.

They fought as hard as they could, and were helped by many people who knew how dangerous the situation was. There were several disability organizations as well as faith-based groups who all saw that what was happening, and then did happen to Terri.

They all knew that it was a precursor of very bad things to come.

Terri’s family did everything they could, everything they knew how, but the pro-deathers prevailed.

Since Terri’s death, her family have lived and breathed her memory in a constructive and positive way – by establishing a small foundation to spread the word and also to help others in similar predicaments.

No good deed goes unpunished, apparently.

A TV station in Florida ran a piece yesterday headed “Terri Schiavo’s Family Profiting From Foundation.”

Now, with a lead like that, which way do you think the story was going to go?

Natch.

All innuendo and spin. Why would we expect anything else? Even all these years after her death, Bobby, Suzanne, and Mary spend countless hours trying to correct misleading reporting about the circumstances of Terri’s death. This is just one more media attack in a long string of animus posing as “news” and comes just a few weeks after Fox’s The Family Guy made horrible fun of Terri and her disabled condition.

Now this.

Let’s be clear – the media and others with less than unbiased interest are hammering the Foundation for one reason and one reason only: Its existence reminds them that people with disabilities are worth less than the rest of us and are easily disposed of. They’d rather not be reminded of their part in shaping this view, now widely held across the country.

At another level, they understand that it takes only a split second for any of us to be in the same state as Terri.

And that they, too, could be legally executed.

The Schiavo Foundation reminds them of their own fragile mortality.

They’d rather not have to be reminded about it.

"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."

[Saundra Duffy]

I will never forget.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Dante3]

This is so outrageous. I appreciate what you and others here are doing in keeping her memory alive.

[BykrBayb]

The hatred of this family is pathological and obsessive.

Yes it is.

[wagglebee]

And what makes it worse is that some self-proclaimed conservatives share that pathological and obsessive hatred.

[Lesforlife]

I wrote Jill Stanek the other day asking if she thought
Italy had embraced BO’s cruel and callous disregard
of babies who survive abortions.

She said she wasn’t sure but, “I’m telling you late-term induced labor abortions are a worldwide epidemic, Leslie.”

[wagglebee]

What makes it worse is that this baby could have survived if he had been given medical care, instead he was abandoned to die. The reason for his death sentence was a cleft palate and those are 100% correctable.

[BykrBayb]

Yep. But as we know, just because they proclaim themselves conservatives doesn’t mean they are. They think that because they have the negative qualities that liberals falsely attribute to conservatives, that makes them conservatives. They believe hatred is a conservative quality, and because they’re so full of hatred, they think they must be conservatives. They’re fools.

[Lesforlife]

Have you heard it said, as I have that when the elderly in Italy see
babies, they cry because there are so few?

[wagglebee]

Mikey Schiavo thinks he owns Terri even in death.

Thread by me.

Terri Schiavo's Ex-Husband Michael Threatens to Sue Her Family Over Foundation

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo's name could be back in court, but this time for a different reason. Her former husband says he is considering a lawsuit against her family because they started a foundation in her name to assist other disabled who may be deprived of their legal rights and medical care.

The foundation was once named Terri's Fight and existed before Terri's death, which saw Michael Schiavo starve and dehydrate her to death over 13 days after winning a court order to take her life.

The Schindler family -- Terri's mother and father and brother and sister -- headed up the foundation to defray legal expenses and costs to provide Terri the rehabilitative treatment and medical care Michael deprived her when he gave up on her recovery.

Following Terri's painful euthanasia death, the Schindler family change the name to the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and it has raised a modest amount of money -- less than six figures -- to provide help and support for disabled people like her.

But, Michael, who said he never wanted anyone to profit from the use of Terri's name, claims the helpful nonprofit organization is doing just that.

Michael says a court document gives him rights to the name Terri Schiavo and he says it means no one can use her name without her permission. His attorney has written to the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation telling it that its use of the name violates that court order.

Schiavo's attacks are ironic given that he attempted to profit politically from Terri's death, by starting a political action committee that supported candidates until it closed down after the FEC repeatedly fined it for late reports and violating reporting guidelines.

David Gibbs, a pro-life attorney who helped the Schindler family during their legal battle to protect Terri's right to live, told WTSP that the Schindler's are doing a good job running the nonprofit and helping hundreds of people.

Gibbs also says the foundation has the right to use Terri's name since she is a public figure and they are related to her.

Wesley J. Smith, an attorney and bioethicist based in California, says what Michael Schiavo “believes” is "irrelevant and beside the point."

"Had the reporters wanted to find out the kind of help the foundation offers others, producers could have called me or a myriad of others active in this field, who are quite aware of the selfless giving and effort each surviving member of Terri’s family offers to others," he said. "Indeed, I have personal knowledge of case after case in which the Schindlers worked selflessly–and without financial compensation of any kind–to assist family members save their cognitively disabled loved ones from suffering the same dehydration fate as Terri."

Smith says neither Terri's brother Bobby Schindler nor her sister Suzanne Vitadamo are making any money off of Terri's name.

"And as for profiteering–Bobby Schindler’s salary is $37,500 annually, and all speaking fees he receives go to the foundation," he explained. "His sister Suzanne, makes less and is 14 months in arrears in receiving her compensation."

"It is also worth noting, that after receiving complaints, the IRS investigated the foundation and gave it a clean bill of health in 2008," Smith continued. "The hatred of this family is pathological and obsessive."

Smith says the Schindler family is a wonderful one who have been unfairly attacked.

"Father Bob gave everything he had to save his daughter’s life, and seeing her die slowly by intentional dehydration when the family was prepared to love and care for her the rest of her life, destroyed his health and eventually took his life," he said. "I stand wholeheartedly and unreservedly with the Schindler family and against the continual calumny mounted against them."

Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.TerrisFight.org

[wagglebee]

Whoopi Goldberg continues to repulse.

Thread by reaganrevolutionin2010.

Whoopi Goldberg Frets Fewer Abortions Would Mean More Parents Kill Kids Later

On ABC’s The View on Tuesday, as the group discussed a new law in Oklahoma that requires an ultrasound of an unborn baby be performed and the image offered to a pregnant woman before an abortion could take place, none of the panel members spoke up in favor the Oklahoma law, although right-leaning Elisabeth Hasselbeck supported "nudging" pregnant women to look at an ultrasound to be informed about the life signs of their unborn babies.

Whoopi Goldberg became emotional as she dismissed the effectiveness of viewing an ultrasound in encouraging women not to have abortions, and seemed to worry that making such images available would make a woman more upset as she decides whether to have an abortion. She also seemed concerned that if some women facing difficult circumstances chose not to have an abortion, that the baby would be murdered later in life at the hands of its desperate parents. Goldberg: "Let me tell you something. There's not a woman that goes, there's not a woman out there who makes a decision to have an abortion lightly. It is a tough, a tough, but to have someone compound what you are already carrying, you are already going in there with that pain because maybe you didn't want to have an abortion, maybe you can't have a baby. Maybe you can't afford it."

After Hasselbeck posed, "Are you going in there with all the knowledge of what's actually going on inside of you at 16 weeks?" Goldberg responded: "But what difference does it make if you can't have the baby? What difference does it make if you're going to bring a baby in and you can't feed it and you can't take care of it and then people end up killing their kids? I hate it!"

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...

[wagglebee]

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms on the list -- Big Murder disapproves of your "choices".

Thread by me.

Planned Parenthood Thinks Moms Want More Abortions for Mother's Day

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- It's a little difficult for people who were victims of abortion to purchase their mother a gift for Mother's Day this weekend. But Planned Parenthood apparently thinks moms want donations made to the abortion business in their name from those lucky enough to not have been aborted themselves.

Cecile Richards, the president of the largest abortion business in the nation, sent out Planned Parenthood's annual Mother's Day fundraising missive today.

"It's almost Mother's Day ... and if you have a mother in your life who's anything like me or my mom (the late Texas Governor Ann Richards), then you know nothing would make her happier than a gift that represents bold and compassionate values. Like a gift in her honor to Planned Parenthood Federation of America," she writes.

"We've made it quick and easy — and we've even made it pretty," Richards adds. "Honor a mother in your life with a gift to Planned Parenthood. [It's] a gift your loved one will appreciate — and remember."

But Wendy Wright says Planned Parenthood would make more from its fundraising appeal if it didn't make it so there are fewer people who could give.

"Planned Parenthood could make even more money from its shameless exploitation of Mothers Day if they stopped making women childless from abortion," she told LifeNews.com today.

"A better Mothers Day gift would be to organizations that help women cherish their motherhood, and that is pregnancy resource centers," she said.

The pro-abortion group says a donation is the great gift for those who can't come up with something better for mom on Sunday than a gift to an organization that kills children and hurts women.

"If you are the daughter whose mom had the guts to give you the answers to questions you couldn't quite figure out how to ask, if you are the son whose mother raised you to love and respect your sisters, your wife, your daughters; and if you know a mother who is raising strong, independent, and confident kids in the face of unbelievable odds," then a Planned Parenthood gift is appropriate.

Those moms whose family members send a gift to support the abortion business in their name receive a email with a "card" featuring a flower.

[wagglebee]

This is wonderful news to combat YouTube's censorship.

Thread by mlizzy.

Breaking: New pro-life video website launched

Praise God ... pro-lifer Todd Bullis, of Ventura, CA, activist fame, has created Pro-Lifetube.com. The pro-life community has needed this for a long time! Todd is a software developer, saw the need, and filled it. Thank you, Todd!

Any and all pro-lifers can now upload their videos and photos to Pro-Lifetube.com, just as they would to YouTube, but without fear of being expunged.

Todd has spent weeks adding what pro-life videos he could find on YouTube to give Pro-Lifetube.com a solid base. One of the videos he found was this disturbing clip, which I had never seen...

This video was originally shot on March 10, 2009, at a Charlotte, NC, abortion mill. Here's the backstory, from opersvamerica:
(Click video to view.)

Yesterday they [sidewalk counselors] came upon something they have often witnessed at the mills but never got on video - a father forcing his daughter to have an abortion. She was given no choice. So many of the women brought to abortion mills are really given no choice. She ran from the abortion mill and from her father, crying all the way. The father ran after her, chased her down, put her arm in a hammerlock, and forced her back to the mill.

The police were called and brought the entire family to the police station. When the family came back to the mill, our hearts fell as we thought the father had had his way. It was not to be! The father stormed into the abortion mill, got his money back, and sped out of the driveway honking his horn all the way. He was extremely unhappy but mother and baby are doing just fine.

The policeman told us that the father was going to let her carry the baby to term! Praise the Lord!

Thank goodness, this story had a happy ending. Now the pro-life community has a depository for all our videos documenting the horrors of abortion, pro-life activism, and even pro-life music videos at Pro-Lifetube.com. (link)

[wagglebee]

For all his flaws, Rick Santorum has always been dedicated to life.

Thread by me.

Rick Santorum: Incompatible With Life? Some Children Die in Abortions, But Bella is Now Two

"Incompatible with life." The doctor's words kept echoing in my head as I held my sobbing wife, Karen, just four days after the birth of our eighth child, Isabella Maria.

Bella was born with three No. 18 chromosomes, rather than the normal two. The statistics were heartbreaking: About 90 percent of children with the disorder, known as trisomy 18, die before or during birth, and 90 percent of those who survive die within the first year.

Bella was baptized that day, and then we spent every waking hour at her bedside, giving her a lifetime's worth of love and care. However, not only did she not die; she came home in just 10 days.

She was sent home on hospice care, strange as that sounded for a newborn. The hospice doctor visited us the next day and described in graphic detail how Bella would die. In sum, she could die at any time without warning, and the best we could hope for was that she would die of the common cold.

Karen and I discontinued hospice so that we and our amazing doctors, James Baugh and Sunil Kapoor, could get to work focusing on Bella's health, not her death.

Like so many moms of special kids, Karen is a warrior, caring for Bella night and day and, at times, fighting with health-care providers and our insurance company to get our daughter the care she needs.

Being the parent of a special child gives one exceptional insight into the negative perception of the disabled among many medical professionals, particularly when they see your child as having an intellectual disability. Sadly, we discovered that not only did we have to search for doctors who had experience with trisomy 18. We also had to search for those who saw Bella not as a fatal diagnosis, but as a wanted and loved daughter and sister, as well as a beautiful gift from God.

We knew from experience that Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was such a place. Fourteen years ago, we had another baby who was diagnosed as having no hope, but CHOP's Dr. Scott Adzick gave him a shot at life. In the end, we lost our son Gabriel, but we will always be grateful to Dr. Adzick for affirming the value of his life.

When Bella was 3 months old, she needed some minor but vital surgery. Some doctors told us that a child like Bella wouldn't survive surgery or, even worse, that surgery was "not recommended" because of her genetic condition - in other words, that her life wasn't worth saving. So we again turned to the Children's Hospital and found compassion, concern, and hope in Dr. Thane Blinman. He told us he had several trisomy 18 patients who did well - and so did Bella.

Next week, we will mark Bella's second birthday. Over these two years, we have endured two close brushes with death, lots of sleepless nights, more than a month in CHOP's intensive care unit, and the constant anxiety that the next day could be our little girl's last.

And yet we have also been inspired - by her fighting spirit, and by the miracle of seeing our little flower blossom into a loving, joyful child who is at the center of our family life.

Most children with trisomy 18 diagnosed in the womb are aborted. Most who survive birth are given hospice care until they die. In these cases, doctors advise parents that these disabled children will die young or be a burden to them and society. But couldn't the same be said of many healthy children?

All children are a gift that comes with no guarantees. While Bella's life may not be long, and though she requires our constant care, she is worth every tear.

Living with Bella has been a course in character and virtue. She makes us better. And it's not just our family; she enriches every life she touches. In the end, isn't that what every parent hopes for his or her child?

Happy birthday, Isabella!

[Republic]

Yes. A great big AMEN to his ending sentence! My gosh...five years...and I still cannot stand to think of what those monsters did to Terri. My guess, the main players are not happy campers. A far greater love for Terri exists within but also above and outside the realm of this earthly place and I imagine that our Father if fully aware of what was done to his beloved Terri.

[wagglebee]

Wesley J. Smith has two exposes about how the bioethicists now think it's okay to kill for organs.

Both threads by me.

Wesley J. Smith: Euthanizing Patients for Organs Advocated in "Bioethics"

This isn’t the first time that coupling assisted suicide/euthanasia has been suggested as a potential concept, but it may be the first time it has been actively advocated.  Oxford bioethicists Julian Savulescu–for whom virtually anything goes–writing with Dominic Wilkinson argue that euthanasia coupled with organ harvesting would be a splendid way to obtain more kidneys, livers, and hearts. From “Should We Allow Organ Donation Euthanasia?” published in Bioethics (citations omitted):

It is permissible to withdraw life support from a patient with extremely poor prognosis, in the knowledge that this will certainly lead to their death, even if it would be possible to keep them alive for some time. It is permissible to remove their organs after they have died. But why should surgeons have to wait until the patient has died as a result of withdrawal of advanced life support or even simple life prolonging medical treatment? An alternative would be to anaesthetize the patient and remove organs, including the heart and lungs. Brain death would follow removal of the heart (call this Organ Donation Euthanasia (ODE)). The process of death would be less likely to be associated with suffering for the patient than death following withdrawal of LST (which is not usually accompanied by full anaesthetic doses of drugs). If there were a careful and appropriate process for selection, no patient would die who would not otherwise have died.  Organs would be more likely to be viable, since they would not have sustained a period of reduced circulation prior to retrieval. More organs would be available (for example the heart and lungs, which are currently rarely available in the setting of DCD). Patients and families could be reassured that their organs would be able to help other individuals as long as there were recipients available, and there were no contraindications to transplantation. This is not the case at present with DCD, since many patients do not die sufficiently quickly following withdrawal of LST for organ retrieval.

That has been argued before, as we have discussed here often. But the bioethicists take it even a step farther, coupling it with assisted suicide, as apparently has been done in Belgium:

If we believe that we should not remove organs from patients who are still alive, even where they have consented to this and would otherwise die anyway, then one alternative would be to euthanize the donor and retrieve organs after cardiac death had been declared. This would already be a theoretical option in countries where euthanasia is permitted. Organ donation after cardiac euthanasia has been described in a patient in Belgium. Organ donors could be given large doses of sedative, and cardioplegic agents (to stop the heart). Again, this would reduce the risk of patients suffering after withdrawal of LST and make organ donation possible for some patients who would otherwise not be able to donate. In an extreme case, they might choose to undergo euthanasia at least partly to ensure that their organs could be donated.

As you may recall from my first piece against assisted suicide, published in my innocent days before immersing myself in these issues, I suggested that eventually assisted suicide and organ donation would be tied together “as a plum to society.” I just didn’t know it had actually happened–as opposed to having been “merely” advocated.  We now learn it was done in Belgium.  I will get that article and report about it here at SHS (and perhaps elsewhere).

I have a theory: If you are a bioethicist–the more brutal your ideas, the more denigrating of human exceptionalism you become, the more crassly utilitarian direction in which your advocacy flows–the more prestigious the university that will give you a tenured chair and a big salary, and the more likely you are to get the big grants.  Think, Peter Singer and personhood theory/infanticide/Great Ape Project and Princeton and, as here, Jullian Savulescu and Oxford.  Interestingly, both are Australian, so perhaps a pleasing accent is part of the mix. In any event, this article not only supports my theory, but proves another point I often make–if you want to see what is going to go wrong in society tomorrow, just read the professional journal articles published today.

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Wesley J. Smith: Belgian Doctors Euthanized Disabled Patient and Harvested Her Organs

I found the article about the Belgian euthanasia coupled with organ harvesting referenced in my critique yesterday of a bioethics journal article  urging that very approach.  The woman in question was not terminally ill, but in a “locked-in” state, that is, fully conscious and completely paralyzed.  She wanted to die–a desire accommodated by her doctors.  Just prior to being killed, she decided to donate her organs. From, “Organ donation after physician-assisted death,” (Letter to the Editor) published in the journal Transplantation (21 (2008) 915–no link):

The day before the euthanasia, the patient expressed her will of after-death organ donation. The ethical and legal possibility of combination of the two separate processes, physician-assisted suicide and after-death organ donation was then considered and agreed by the institutional ethical committee president. The intravenous euthanasia procedure was performed according to the regular protocol, in the presence of the patient’s husband, in a room adjacent to the operative room. The patient was in her regular hospital bed. No member of the transplant team was present during the euthanasia. When the patient’s death was declared by three independent physicians after 10 min of absence of cardiac activity, her cadaver was placed on the operative table. The liver and both kidneys were harvested and transplanted according to the regular Eurotransplant organ allocation rules for after-death organ donation. Currently, more than 1 year later, all three recipients are enjoying a normal graft function.

If this doesn’t set off alarm bells about how the sick and disabled are increasingly being looked upon not only as burdens (to themselves, families, and society), but potential objects for exploitation, what will?  A disabled woman was killed, even though people with locked-in states often adjust over time to their disabilities and are happy to be alive. Indeed, the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly-written by–Jean-Dominique Bauby–tells just such a story.

Moreover, agreeing to harvest organs from euthanasia/assisted suicides raises the very realistic prospect that despairing people with terminal illnesses or disabilities (or perhaps, just despair) could latch onto being killed for their organs as a way of bringing meaning to their lives.  This is very dangerous territory, made all the more treacherous by doctors, spouses, and a respected medical journal validating the ideas that dead is better than disabled and that living patients can, essentially, be viewed as a natural resource to be killed and mined.

The authors don’t see it that way, of course. They have visions of organs dancing before their eyes:

This case of two separate requests, first euthanasia and second, organ donation after death, demonstrates that organ harvesting after euthanasia may be considered and accepted from ethical, legal and practical viewpoints in countries where euthanasia is legally accepted. This possibility may increase the number of transplantable organs and may also provide some comfort to the donor and his (her) family, considering that the termination of the patient’s life may somehow help other human beings in need for organ transplantation.

Taking the organs was the easy decision. Once you’ve pulled medicine into the forbidden zone of active killing, finding self-congratulatory justifications becomes a most desirable quest.

Some might defend the act by noting the patient’s decision to be euthanized was not made concurrent with her decision to be an organ donor.  I don’t see the distinction. Besides, once society accepts that the two can be joined, saving others could easily become a frequent motivation for asking to be killed.  Heck, given the number of non voluntary euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands–coupled with the push for “presumed consent” to harvest organs–”choice”  itself could one day become moot.