Saving A Life - Please, Read, Follow Links and Do Something Now!!!

The Anchoress here has posted a remarkable entry regarding Terri Schiavo. She is joined by Dori at Whittenberg Gate, La Shawn Barber and others. The Anchoress' entry paragraphs:

"Suppose you are alive, but paralysed. Your mind seems to be in working order, but you can't say much. You're happy to see your family who come to visit you all the time, and you do make every effort you can to respond to your surroundings. You enjoy the sunshine in the morning, when your nurses open the curtains, and you like the sound of rain falling upon the window, and at night, you can see the moon travel across the sky, as you watch and wonder. You like to blow kisses and receive them.

Photos of Terri (taken from Terri's Fight.org)

Here is a photo of Terri responding to "her mother's playful attention" as noted in Terri's Fight.

Some would say you don't have much of a life. Others would say, well, maybe not...but it is the life you HAVE, and it is your own, and the YOU that exists within that limited life is still the essential YOU, the absolute YOU...the YOU that God loved into being. You're still there. You're just not quite able to come out, all the way.

Now... suppose your husband, who once vowed to be faithful through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, has decided it's all too much for him - that he wants a life outside of what he can have with you. Hey, he's only human, who could gainsay it? He's now got a live-in lover and a couple of kids.

And he has decided that even though he now has the life he wanted, it would be wrong to simply divorce you and go on with his new life. No...he thinks that even though you are not actually dying...you probably should die. Your death, you see, would be a better and more compassionate thing than your being allowed to continue living...even though your family is more than willing to see you through to the end of your life.

Since you are not on a respirator that could simply be removed, and you do not have a fatal disease that will eventually take your life, since, as I say, you are not actually dying...a decision has to be made as to just how your life may be effectively ended.

So, your husband is working to have your feeding stopped, so that you can starve to death. You can lie in your bed and feel increasingly hungry and thirsty and weak. You can feel abandoned. You can feel the utter cruelty of unnecessary, willfull deprivation, for it is not as if you are on a deserted island somewhere, utterly alone and without aid or companionship, where your paralysis assists in your natural demise...no, you're in a civilized country in which the means to help you stay alive are quite available...only withheld. Because your life isn't meaningful enough.

You are not regarded, by many, as a creature capable of comprehension and understanding. However, in your agony of starvation, you will be be permitted to understand that your life is unimportant. You'll be allowed to understand that your death is desirable.

But since you won't be able to express yourself, or rail against those feelings, or beg for mercy...you will have to simply endure the helpless stares of your family and friends, as they watch you hunger and thirst, unable - by law - to respond to your dire circumstances.

Imagine your name is Terri Schiavo. And this is your life. And you may begin to die on February 22, 2005."

I have followed this story from time to time, wondering how in the world Terri's husband can stand to sleep with himself, look himself in the mirror or stand to reside in his skin. For the life of me, I can't understand it.

Terri's situation was caused by what a jury determined was medical neglect and a substantial award was given in court. During this period, that snake she married promised to do everything possible to keep her in rehab, to spend the award money on her care, in fact, everything you would expect a loving husband to do.

Then he started shacking up with a new "fiancee" and decided keeping the money was important and the only way he could do that was to inheret the money meant to provide for Terri's rehabilitation. So, he decided to let her die of thirst and starvation. He went to court to be able to do so, and won.

The Governor of the State of Florida pushed through Terri's Law, to keep her alive which the husband, in his kindness, his humanness, his great love for "family" fought in court and again won. Now, Terri is sentenced to death. Not for a crime, but for her husband's convenience. This MUST NOT be allowed to stand. Must Not! As the Anchoress has noted,

"The bloggers, we are told, are mouth-breathing, unethical, mob-ruled, bible-thumping cretins. They are cold, swarming, scheming, unsophisticated and incapable of really understanding the proper use and function of modern informational tools, which they are using to tear down lives and wreck havoc on all of the enlightened thinking of the last 40 years."

Well, so be it. The so called compassionate who resoundingly protest the use of the death penalty, who scream about any one who is "pro death penalty" who hold candle vigils at the site of any "interesting" execution and certainly verbal about executing anyone who is mentally impaired are totally hypocritical if they don't answer this call to arms. If you are against executing a mentally retarded individual or against executing a mentally ill individual, you MUST according to your own lights be against the execution by legal fiat of Terri Schivao. If you are anti-death penalty and you don't support saving the life of Terri, you are a hypocrite, a scoundrel and a lying snake in the grass who doesn't in the least bit have the courage of your convictions. Harsh? You damn betcha it's harsh and 100% accurate. Think of how much more harsh is knowing that you are starving, that you can't do anything about it and that you can't communicate well that this is NOT your choice.

The Anchoress gives a number of links to follow up on. Here,, here, here, here, and here.

Full Disclosure: I am absolutey anti-death penalty. I believe in the sanctity of human life and that every effort must be made to protect life when possible. War, with all its death and destruction takes too many lives as it is. And in the presence of those who war against others, we must respond. However, we are not at war with Terri and we are not at war with those on death row and we are not at war with babies in their mother's wombs (oh, wait, maybe, by law, we are...at least according to the majority of the "pro-choice crowd." Further, at our local university, I teach graduate and undergraduate Rehabilitation Counseling (Rehabilitation Services Department, University of Texas-Pan American) and I am incensed that some people think that the disabled life is not a life worth living. How callous, how.... words fail me.

UPDATE: go to this site "Info Theory" and read, then make a pledge.

UPDATE Juan Schoch at Tekgnosis has a number of interesting posts regarding saving the life of Terri, Read them all.

HT to PoliPundit. Thanks Lorie Byrd, Thanks!

Posted by GM Roper at February 17, 2005 10:59 AM | TrackBack