Blood on their hands

The Starving of Terri Schiavo
Commentary by Stephen G. Peroutka
March 18, 2005

Nothing is more important to the pro-life movement than the story of Terri Schiavo, the unfortunate young woman who suffered a brain injury some 15 years ago, and basically is on “death row” in Florida. As it stands now, Mrs. Schiavo has been given a death sentence for Friday, March 18, by Judge George Greer, who has mandated that Schiavo’s estranged husband, Michael Schiavo, may order her feeding tube permanently removed on that date.

Terri Schiavo, however, is not a dying woman. Terri is a healthy woman with a disability. She is not in a coma. She is not in a vegetative state. She is not on life support machines. She is, in fact, very responsive to her parents and loved ones. Terri does not require a ventilator—she breathes on her own—and she does not require a heart machine—her heart beats strongly.

What Terri does require to live is food and hydration—just like you and me. But because of her disability, Terri receives her nutrition through a feeding tube that is only attached at mealtime. Despite this and the fact that Terri’s family will gladly care for her needs for the rest of her natural life, her estranged husband—who cohabitates with another woman and the two children he fathered since Terri’s accident—is determined to see Terri die from starvation and dehydration.

The virtually complete silence from women’s and victims’ rights activists—particularly in a society that claims to abhor spousal abuse—is mind boggling. Where is the National Organization for Women? Why haven’t they condemned Michael Schiavo as a philandering pig who has fathered two children to a mistress while Terri—the woman he is married to—is denied her most basic civil and human rights?

The stunning silence from the Left is easily understood based on ideology alone. It is inexcusable that the Florida court system has utterly betrayed its oath to uphold the rule of law and protect its citizenry. The courts are not merely turning a blind eye to spousal abuse, but are, in fact, demanding that this abuse continue.

The United States Constitution states, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Amendment XIV, Section I). This amendment was written to protect the right to life of all American citizens.

Terri’s right to life is being attacked by the very court system created to protect her rights. Furthermore, her right to due process has repeatedly been abridged. Michael Schiavo has had legal representation; Terri’s loving parents, the Schindler’s, have lawyers; but Terri has never been provided with counsel.

Even Florida state laws are being broken. Media director for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, Pamela Hennessy, commented on this scandal in a release from March 10 of this year: “Florida Statute 744.3215 (Rights of Persons Determined Incapacitated) require that incapacitated persons cannot be deprived of necessary services including food and water….Florida Statute 765.404 which defines persistent vegetative state require that the condition be determined and diagnosed as permanent prior to the withdrawal of life-prolonging means. Further, Florida Statute 765.309 prevents mercy killing and assisted suicide.”

Hennessy continued, “Under Florida Statute 765.404, clear and convincing evidence of the ward’s intent for medical treatment must be established. The only evidence in support of removing Terri’s feeding tube was the self-serving hearsay testimony of her guardian (which is not admissible under FS 90.602) and hearsay from two members of his immediate family. Greer systematically ruled that the testimony from Terri’s friends and family was unreliable or not credible.”

So where are Terri’s defenders?

By all accounts, Terri was a devout Catholic before her accident. Yet equally silent as N.O.W. and the victims’ rights groups has been Terri’s local diocesan leader. Bishop Robert Lynch is the head of Terri’s diocese, her shepherd, and to date he has not visited her or appeared at a single rally in support of her. Instead he has allowed the wolves to attack one of the most venerable of the flock with barely even tokenistic resistance. Bishop Lynch, this is shameful.

Without swift action, Terri faces a particularly disturbing death. In Wesley J. Smith’s book, Forced Exit, St. Louis neurologist Dr. William Burke describes death by starvation: “A conscious person would feel the de-hydration just as you or I would.… They would go into seizures, their skin cracks and bleeds and they may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucus membrane. And heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying of the stomach lining…. They feel the pain of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water…. Death by dehydration takes 10 to 14 days and is an extremely agonizing death.”

Sadly at this point, it appears that Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer has won. Barring a last minute reprieve by Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.) or a miracle, Terri Schiavo will die by the ravages of starvation and dehydration. She has been condemned to an agonizing death even though she has committed no crime. Ironically, killing an animal by this means in the state of Florida would result in legal prosecution, fines and possible jail time. And if a convicted criminal were to face the death penalty for his crimes, such a form of death would be considered cruel and unusual.

Now that they have apparently won, I challenge Mr. Schiavo and Judge Greer to make it easier on Terri.

If you really care about her and want to lessen her suffering, take a gun and shoot her in the head or take a knife and stab her in the heart. Both are more humane than the death sentence you have foisted upon her, and it would spare her the intense pain that starvation will cause over the next couple of weeks. If you are both too squeamish for the former, than administer a lethal injection.

Either way, if you are going to kill this woman, do it in a manner fitting her status as a martyr. Don’t add relish to your pro-death victory by ghoulishly prolonging this poor woman’s agony.

Or don’t you—you gutless duo—want her blood on your hands? Gentlemen, it is there already.

Stephen G. Peroutka is a partner in The Law Firm of Peroutka & Peroutka, P.A, and is one of the nation’s foremost pro-life advocates. He is co-founder of the Institute on the Constitution. Peroutka is the host of two talk radio programs and a national T.V. show, Face the Truth.