HOW TO FILE A DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT WITH
THE OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
PROVIDING NUTRITION AND HYDRATION TO PATIENTS A Catholic Perspective by Julie Grimstad
Julie A. Grimstad has been Director of the Center for the Rights of the Terminally Ill for the past 15 years. Her early experiences as a nurse in an extended care unit of a hospital, as well as having had a brother with a severe mental disability, contributed to her concern for the human rights of the medically dependent, vulnerable people who often feel (and are) rejected by a society that increasingly values only its healthy and productive members. Julie is a Wisconsin homemaker, wife, mother of five and grandmother of 2 children.
Mrs. Grimstad is also the author of "Euthanasia: Imposed Death" (copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000), a newspaper supplement covering such topics as so-called "Persistent Vegetative State", witholding food and water from disabled people, Who's Who in the Right-to-Die Arena, etc.
This column, to appear in a forthcoming issue of the American Life League's magazine, Celebrate Life, is her first contribution to WFF's "About Medicine and Morality". -- Editor
Exerpt:
"Nutrition and hydration (whether orally administered or medically assisted) are sometimes withdrawn not because a patient is dying, but precisely because a patient is not dying (or not dying quickly enough) and someone believes it would be better if he or she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."
Julie Grimstad + Center for the Rights of the Terminally Ill
Tomorrow at church we're going to light an entire candle stand up in honor of Terri. I think we bought something like 60 or 70 beeswax candles at the Greek festival. It's going to take five of us to get them all lit and up at church in the morning.
And, though this was not the plan, it just occurred to me that people will be curious and probably ask afterward at our agape what/why we had lit so many. A great opening.
Everyone have a great Sunday morning. May God bless the Schindlers and remove from them all suffering and pain, filling them with His peace and knowledge of His love.