Tuesday, March 22, 2005

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.

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sorry - how much time have you spent by Terri's side to witness her "alertness" and "non-vegetative state"? What about Terri's right to die - which is what she wanted? I can only hope and pray that my family would love me enough to not let me linger on with zero quality of life as Terri's family is doing. Nobody on the face of this planet would want to live like that - it's not living. You sick, sick people who are so brainwashed by your religious beliefs are the ones with blood on your hands. Let the poor woman be with God rather than having her be exploited and plastered on every television set across the world.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 3:43:00 PM CST  
Blogger WI Catholic said...

I have been in nursing since 1967 and became a nurse in 1972. I have taken care of MANY like and worse off than Terri. NEVER have I taken care of anyone who was condemned by the courts to death without having had the latest tests done to KNOW that they are right. Nor would I participate in that process. This is NOT death with dignity. This is starving a living human being to death. They are not even allowed to use a moist swab for her mouth, nor to put an ice chip into her mouth as is NORMAL STANDARD PROCEDURE in care of the dying.

I would not normally respond to an anonymous writer, but it is YOU that are in error, not me. Terri is no different than any cognitively disabled child or adult that I have LOVINGLY cared for until NATURAL death over my many years of nursing. This is NOT her desire, but is only the word of a man who suddenly found two others related to him to agree with him MANY years after saying he would be at her side ...but who has left her side long ago to be with another in adultery and has fathered two children already by that woman. This is the same spirit of eugenics and euthanasia that ran rampant in the T4 program that killed so many defenseless people whose lives someone ELSE judged to be not worthy of living. This is NOT an easy death. Hear Kate Adamson speak on the HELL having no hydration or food was and is. And remember that there are MANY living with the same tubes that Terri has. You want to kill all of them, too?

Terri has a right to REHAB that the courts gave her when that lawsuit case was won. She has not had ANY of that rehab, but he has spent the money to legally and lawfully have her executed. May God have mercy on his soul, and on those who buy into the propaganda that this is MERCIFUL and what Terri wanted.

As for being with God... Terri IS with God daily and always has been, just as all human beings are or can be.

It has nothing to do simply with religious beliefs alone. It has to do with NATURAL LAW written into the hearts of ALL men that murder is wrong. If Terri were a dog, Michael would be jailed and fined. So would Judge Greer.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 4:27:00 PM CST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are too emotionally attached to this case to think critically.

The knee-jerk reactions of the right-wingers was oh so predictable - ranting, accusing those who don't agree of being Nazis and so on.

Thousands of family members are allowed to die (killed if you prefer) each year. It's society's way of taking care of business in private.

Congress had no business interfereing and to vote at midnight, Jesus H. Christ - what grandstanding!

American schools rank as the worst in the industrialized world - so, it's no surprise our gov't is now crap too. You reap what you sew.

Tim in NC

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 5:10:00 PM CST  
Blogger WI Catholic said...

Tim in NC,

Not at all sure if you are the same earlier anonymous or not.

Emotionally attached? LOL.... I WANT emotionally attached caretakers caring for me and my loved ones, not automatons that cannot see ME the person instead of the diagnosis.

And I don't think that Jesus (whose last name is NOT Christ..that is a title, not His Name) has a middle name that begins with H.... that won't be permitted in any future postings here, as any containing that kind of terminology will be deleted.

I believe that our system of checks and balances had BETTER have a way of aiding those caught up in activist court systems that are making laws when they have no business doing that. The Courts are NOT the Law of the land alone. The courts have made MANY mistakes over the years, and I will only point to one... Dred Scot Case.

Now, as to our school systems... you need to return for basic spelling class. And yes, we DO reap what we SOW... whatever we do to the LEAST of these...we do to HIM. They killed Jesus. They are killing Terri. Those responsible for doing this will answer when they meet their Maker. Just as did those responsible for the T4 program long ago.

God bless.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 7:06:00 PM CST  
Blogger WI Catholic said...

Chesala, publically let me say, YOURS was understood by me. It was the other that I was replying to. You said what you said VERY well. Sorry that I was not clear.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 10:39:00 PM CST  

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