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On a July evening 22 years ago, 20-year-old Terry Wallis climbed into a pickup truck with two friends and rode off down a rural Arkansas highway. He never came back -- or, more precisely, he never came back the same. The truck went off a bridge. One of Wallis' friends was uninjured; the other died. Wallis barely made it. First, he was in a coma, then in what doctors called a "vegetative state," and then in what they called a "minimally conscious state." He was paralyzed from the neck down and couldn't talk. His parents assumed legal guardianship from his...

THE MAN I KILLED did not want to die, but he no longer felt he had much of a choice. He had gone from being tall and strapping, full of appetites and a brilliant manner of speech, to a skeleton, weak and full of messy needs. He and his wife still loved each other very much, but... he was 60 when he was diagnosed with cancer. ...One day over lunch, I told him that if he ever experienced too much pain or diminishment, I would try to help him die on his own terms, if he wanted. He was amazed,...

Only a few politicos paid attention last month when Sen. Sam Brownback held a hearing on the way doctor-assisted suicide impacts society. No legislation emerged from the session. None is forthcoming this year. Major news media did not pick up on the item until weeks later. But during that May 25 meeting of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, those who oppose Oregon’s controversial experiment met their new legislative champion. Since the 2003 retirement of Sen. Don Nickles, the Catholic Republican from Oklahoma, it was not clear who would step in as chief opponent of assisted suicide. Brownback, a Kansas...

ZURICH, June 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Swiss Cabinet sees no need to tighten restrictions on assisted suicide, despite the fact that the country has become a favourite destination for "death tourism", and that Switzerland's leading euthanasia doctor has pledged to open a chain of for-profit killing facilities. Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher announced Wednesday, that "the cabinet had come to the conclusion that [new legislation] was not necessary."Switzerland's legal situation is similar to that of the Netherlands, before the laws were liberalized. Switzerland officially prohibits euthanasia but looks the other way on assisted suicide. After growing numbers of...

Terri's Day and nation's independence protects life culture Kevin Fobbs May 29, 2006 America's Culture of Life is truly the legacy of one woman whose death forever changed our nation because of actions that were not in her hands but in those of her husband and his lawyers. Yet for millions of Americans we will forever link our own celebration of our nation's independence to the courage of the Schindler family to go forward past the tragedy, past the personal sorrow, past the searing anguish to help America draw a distinct line in the sand, to issue a clarion call...

PORTLAND, May 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new study shows that the psychological effects of "helping patients to die" can be severe for doctors participating in euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (PAS). The report by the group Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF) gleans data from a number of sources articles in independent medical journals, legislative investigations and the public press. The study is among the first of its kind and says the effects on doctors of the inversion of their traditional medical function can be "substantial"."Doctors describe being profoundly adversely affected, being shocked by the suddenness of...

Terri's Day needs financial support: Battle cry for culture of life success Kevin Fobbs May 1, 2006 In America, we put a price on everything except on life and the right to live. In the last couple months I have been told that a life once over is done, finished, kaput... not essential because it's over. When you probe a little deeper about what if it was their life which was treated with such indifference, or what if their little son or daughter were murdered right in front of nearly 300 million onlookers and literally torn from their loving embrace...

Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify Kevin Fobbs March 13, 2006 Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives? And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can...

Terri Schiavo became victim of Michigan's Dr. Death Kevin Fobbs March 21, 2006 He was an author of the macabre — an artist who relished in morbid artwork. A failed movie producer who perfected a machine in 1989 called "the Thanatron" — meaning "death machine" in Greek — which he used the very next year to usher in an era — a new era labeled for his moniker, "Dr. Death" inextricably tied to a new culture of death. Approximately 130 people became victims of his death machine — including one 27 year-old Floridian woman. Her name: Terri Schindler Schiavo who...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor used a speech at Georgetown University to attack pro-life lawmakers who sided with Terri Schiavo's parents in their efforts to prevent their daughter's euthanasia death. She claimed a Congressional effort to have federal courts review the case was a first step towards a dictatorship. O'Connor, who backs abortion, announced her retirement last year and was recently replaced by federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito, who pro-life advocates hope will be more open to upholding laws that protect the right to life. "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would...

(AgapePress) - The director of research and publications for the Parents Television Council (PTC) says violence pervades children's programming -- and it's not the "cartoonish" kind of violence with which many adults are familiar from their own childhoods.The PTC recently completed a study of television programming specifically created for young kids. The pro-family media watchdog group revealed its disturbing findings in a report called "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: A Content Analysis of Children's Television" (See related story).According to the PTC's Melissa Caldwell, the not-so-surprising revelation of this study is that much of kid-targeted TV is not terribly child-friendly. In fact,...

A Missouri couple say they were denied an occupancy permit for their new home because they're not married. Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving have been together for 13 years and have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The couple are appealing the occupancy permit denial from the Black Jack, Mo., board of adjustment, which requires people living together to have blood, marriage or adoption ties. Loving is not the father of Shelltrack's oldest child. I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than...

They might have done this years ago, but he already had a wife. Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze applied for a marriage license in Pinellas County on Friday. She listed her last marriage as ending in divorce on March 29, 1989. He listed his as ending in death on March 31, 2005. Their relationship has long been a curious sidenote in the national right-to-die case of Michael's first wife, Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. Michael Schiavo, 42, has called Jodi Centonze his fiancee for at least six years, relatives said. They live together...