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The nation's Catholic bishops have agreed to strengthen the requirement that Catholic hospitals give food and water to comatose or patients in a so-called "vegetative" state. The move drew praise and support from the family of Terri Schiavo, whose former husband killed in her by removing her nutrition. On an overwhelming vote, the bishops voted 219-4 to guide Catholic heath care facilities towards the moral responsibility to feed and hydrate such patients. The bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services told caregivers at U.S. Catholic hospitals to use a presumption in favor of protecting human life.
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The family of Robert Schindler, Sr. releases the following statement: Robert S. Schindler, Sr., of Gulfport, Florida, father of the late Terri Schindler Schiavo, passed away August 29, 2009 from heart failure at Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Robert fought valiantly to save the life of his brain-injured daughter Terri in the landmark right to life case that culminated in her imposed death by court-ordered starvation and thirst on March 31, 2005. After Terri's death, along with his wife Mary, daughter Suzanne (Schindler) Vitadamo and son Bobby Schindler, he founded the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation in St. Petersburg dedicated to supporting other families faced with the same need to fight for the rights of their disabled or otherwise vulnerable loved ones.
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Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg is to be stripped of his executive power to veto laws passed by parliament after threatening to block a Bill to allow euthanasia in the tiny state. The hereditary sovereign, 53, who is the last Grand Duke in the world, caused a constitutional crisis when he gave notice that he objected to Luxembourg following its neighbours Belgium and the Netherlands in permitting euthanasia before a second-reading vote in the Chamber of Deputies next week. Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister, also opposed the Bill but decided that the Grand Duke had overstepped the mark in threatening to deny the will of parliament.
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A new weekly radio show designed to educate Americans about their health care rights as well as protecting themselves and loved ones who may be sick or disabled from the threat of euthanasia will be launched by the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation at 3 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 15. The Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to ensuring the rights of disabled, elderly and vulnerable citizens against care rationing, euthanasia and medical killing will present a live radio program, "America's Lifeline". The Foundation-sponsored weekly one hour talk radio program will originate from the Tampa studios for Talk Radio 860 WGUL, a Salem Communications station. America's Lifeline will also be streamed worldwide via the internet at http://860wgul.townhall.com/. The program is poised to expand into other Florida radio markets including Orlando and Miami.
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Asked in last night's debate to name a regret, Sen. Barack Obama said he would like to take back his vote authorizing Congress to intervene to save the life of the brain-injured Florida woman Terri Schiavo. Schiavo, on whom WND reported extensively, died of starvation and dehydration in March 2005, two weeks after a federal judge ruled her husband could order doctors to withhold food and water. Her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, battled unsuccessfully through Florida's state courts and federal courts to spare her life. She was not on artificial life support but needed a feeding tube to eat and drink, a measure her husband opposed.
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The family of Terri Schiavo and a leading national pro-life organization have announced a special day of remembrance to honor the memory of the disabled woman whose former husband killed her. March 31, the date of Terri's death, will become the "International Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Terri Schindler Schiavo." The day is designed not only as a remembrance of Terri's painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death at the hands of her ex-husband Michael, but as a way to help the disabled. Terri's family and Priests for Life hope the special day will foster education, prayer, and activism regarding discrimination against the disabled. They hope other people never have to face what she did.
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Pro-life groups in the United States and the family of Terri Schiavo enthusiastically received a new Vatican document saying physicians have an obligation to provide comatose patients with food and water. The document provides guidelines for making sure patients like Terri receive appropriate treatment. In comments to LifeNews.com, Terri's father Bob Schindler said he appreciated the Catholic Church backing the obligation to feed and hydrate those persons deemed to be in a "vegetative" or even comatose state.
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As the second anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death from dehydration on March 31, 2005, approaches, her brother, Bobby Schindler has released a letter written to Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida. "In light of the fact that Bishop Lynch refused my family's pleas for his help in our attempt to save my sister's life, I am posting this "open letter to Bishop Robert Lynch" which I sent to him on March 9, 2007, and to which I have, to date, received no response", Schindler said.
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Deciding when the benefits outweigh the burdens has never been an exact science, said the Rev. Kevin O'Rourke, a Catholic priest who studies bioethics at the Stritch School of Medicine, part of Loyola University Chicago. He helped author a power-of-attorney document in the early 1990s in which patients can authorize their decision-makers to stop artificial feeding. O'Rourke said people who insist on indefinitely feeding vegetative patients are selectively emphasizing abstract guidance from the Vatican that is supposed to be applied on a case-by-case basis. "The goal of life is friendship with God, and it may happen that prolonging life doesn't increase your progress toward that goal," he said. "I don't think you're respecting the person if you keep them in that condition."
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A UK/Belgian team studied a 23-year-old woman who had suffered a severe brain injury in a road accident, which left her apparently unable to communicate. By scanning her brain, they discovered she could understand spoken commands and even imagine playing tennis. They said their findings, published in Science, were "startling", but cautioned this could be a one-off case. Five months after her accident, which happened in July 2005, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to record the woman's brain activity.
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London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Princeton University philosophy professor Peter Singer came under international condemnation when he announced he favors killing disabled babies via infanticide. Though he was blasted from both sides of the political spectrum, the so-called ethicist still holds to the position. In an interview with The Independent newspaper in England, Singer said he would definitely kill a disabled newborn baby.He indicated he would do so "if that was in the best interests of the baby and of the family as a whole."
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BBC host, Jenni Murray, a feminist and euthanasia advocate is angry. Why? Because after fighting so hard to become liberated and independent, she's now been "trapped" into caring for her mother who is ill with Parkinson's disease.
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Each year in America fewer and fewer disabled infants are born. The reason is eugenic abortion. Doctors and their patients use prenatal technology to screen unborn children for disabilities, then they use that information to abort a high percentage of them. Without much scrutiny or debate, a eugenics designed to weed out the disabled has become commonplace.
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What a change a few days can make! No, I am not talking about the weather. I am referring to the case of Andrea Clark, a patient at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas. On April 19th the hospital ethics committee there decided that Andrea's life was futile so she should be removed from a respirator, and all medical treatments should be stopped.
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Philadelphia, PA - The local judge responsible for authorizing Terri Schiavo's painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death bashed Florida lawmakers at a bioethics conference for passing a law that allowed Governor Jeb Bush to step in and save her life. Circuit Court Judge George Greer said legislators should not be involved in end of life decisions. Speaking at a bioethics forum sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, Greer claimed state legislators are unable to make quality decisions about important issues surrounding medical treatment for the disabled or terminally ill.
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An 18-month-old terminally ill boy with an incurable condition should be kept alive, a High Court judge ruled. Mr Justice Holman concluded in a 29-page judgment that it was not in the boy's best interests to withdraw life-saving ventilation. The boy, known only as MB, suffers from spinal muscular atrophy. He cannot breathe, chew or swallow and has been in intensive care since he was seven weeks old.
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STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (National Catholic Register) - Families who have contacted the nonprofit Hospice Patients Alliance are raising important questions about hospice as a movement. Although hospice's stated mission remains that of providing compassionate and dignified care to people at the end of life, some are asking whether hospices are starting to go beyond that role by hastening death instead.
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Suzanne Gonzales seemed to have everything going for her. A bubbly 19-year-old with loving parents and good friends, she was also a strong student and earned a science scholarship for college. But everything changed one spring day two years ago, when Suzanne's parents, Mike and Mary Gonzales, received the following e-mail."Dear Mom, Dad, and Jennifer, I will make this short as I know. It will be hard to deal with. If you haven't heard by now, I've passed away," the e-mail read.
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In a press conference held at the National Right to Life convention, Thursday afternoon, the family of Terri Schiavo responded to an autopsy report released by a local medical examiner following the thirteen day starvation and dehydration death of Terri Schiavo. Terri's sister Suzanne Vitadamo read a statement on behalf of herself, Terri's parents Bob and Mary Schindler and Terri's brother Bobby. Vitadamo said the Schindler family was "not challenging the findings" of the report, but she indicated they hoped to provide some perspective missing in the reporting on it.
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Strangulation is defined as a form of asphyxia, lack of oxygen, characterized by closure of the blood vessels and/or air passages as a result of external pressure on the neck. It is indisputable that Terri Schindler-Schiavo sustained brain damage as the result of a suspicious incident at her Florida home which occurred sometime during the evening of Feb. 24, 1990 or the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990, which resulted in the deprivation of oxygen to her brain for four to six minutes.
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It is a rare person who has not heard of the recent cruel homicide of the Florida woman, Terri Schiavo. Everyone, it seemed, had a strong opinion on the subject. Yet, despite clear moral teachings on the evils of euthanasia, there are 'Catholics' who boast support for euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide. Are these 'Catholics' badly formed and ignorant of their Church's infallible teachings on the dignity and sacredness of all human life? Is it the fault of Catholic clergy for not preaching the Church's teachings from the pulpit?
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In a house on Chicago's southeast side, a Mexican family is going through a heartbreak like the tragedy that befell the American Terri Schiavo's family and deeply affected both those who defend the right to life and partisans of euthanasia. But no voices had been raised so far in this case because very few knew about the situation concerning the 39-year-old Latin woman whose husband decided to disconnect the tube that had been feeding her during her three and a half years in a vegetative state.
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Our family had hoped this day would never come, but as it has now arrived, we ask ourselves a question in these incredibly sad circumstances: What would the Lord Jesus ask us to do in a moment like this? In John's Gospel, Jesus responded to the questions of the rabbis, who asked why a man had been born blind. He said: "it is so that the works of God might be made manifest through him." God's plan for Terri is unfolding before our eyes. Our prayer at this time is that our Nation will remember the plight of persons with disabilities and commit within our hearts to defend their lives and their dignity for many generations to come.
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Whoever stands idly by without trying to prevent the death of Terri Schindler Schiavo becomes an accomplice to murder, said Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The death of the severely brain-damaged woman "would represent a homicide in which it is impossible to idly stand by without becoming accomplices," he said in a March 31 interview with Vatican Radio. Schiavo died March 31, nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was removed.
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For an overview of what "end-of-life choices" mean for Schiavo, I refer you to the Exit Protocol prepared for her in 2003 by her health care providers (available online at http://www.cst-phl.com/050113/sixth.html). In the midst of her starvation, Terri will most likely be treated for "pain or discomfort" and nausea which may arise as the result of the supposedly humane process of bringing about her death. (Remember that Schiavo is not terminally ill.) She may be given morphine for respiratory distress and may experience seizures. This protocol confirms what we have learned from famines and death camps: death by starvation is a horrible death.
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Today, the courts are Marshalling their power to take it all one step further. Now they have built legal precedent for authorizing the starvation and dehydration of people they don't like. With judges like this in office, no living will can protect you. It matters not what a piece of paper says concerning your desire not to be dehydrated or starved to death. It matters not what you say, what the law says, what the Congress says, what anyone but the judges say. You will die if it pleases them that you do.
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Once you "know" that--that human life is not so special after all--then everything is possible, and none of it is good. When a society comes to believe that human life is not inherently worth living, it is a slippery slope to the gas chamber. You wind up on a low road that twists past Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz. Today that road runs through Pinellas Park, Fla.
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Why would the influential president of a Catholic Dominican theological institute recently teach moral theology that is markedly different than that of Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church?Father Charles E. Bouchard, O.P., president, and associate professor of moral theology at Dominican's Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, Mo. said today: "Is it possible that the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is euthanasia? Yes, but it is more likely that it is the legitimate withdrawal of a medical intervention that no longer serves her spiritual or medical good."
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"As the Catholic bishops of Florida recently said, Terri Schindler Schiavo is a "defenseless human being with inherent dignity" who deserves care and respect. Her serious disabilities make her no less a child of God. She deserves no less than human care and the respect due every human being. She is not in a coma, she is not on "life support." She needs only basic care and assistance in obtaining food and water. When her feeding tube was removed last week it ensured that death will follow, for none of us can sustain our lives without such nourishment."
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An eminent neurologist who evaluated Terri Schiavo for the Florida state Department of Children and Families yesterday concluded she has been wrongly diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state and urges immediate removal to another facility and the restoration of food and water to the dying woman who has become the focal point of the nation's attention. In his affidavit to the court, obtained by WorldNetDaily, Dr. William Polk Cheshire Jr. found Schiavo is aware of pain and reacts visibly to it. She also reacts to the expectation of pain based on conversations she overhears in her room.
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If Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't say something similar to the Florida courts that have ordered Terri Schiavo to die, he'll be the second Republican governor disgraced by the illiterate ramblings of a state judiciary. Gov. Mitt Romney will never recover from his acquiescence to the Massachusetts Supreme Court's miraculous discovery of a right to gay marriage. Neither will Gov. Bush if he doesn't stop the torture and murder of Terri Schiavo.
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Bob Schindler, father of Terri Schiavo (lower left), looks on as his attorney David Gibbs III speaks to Judge James Whittemore in this artist rendition during a hearing Monday afternoon at the United States Courthouse in Tampa, Fla. The closely watched Terri Schiavo case in Florida has had a noticeable effect on the Illinois Valley area: more people are taking second looks at their "living wills."
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The Vatican newspaper on Monday criticized the removal of a feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman, saying nobody can claim the right to decide whether a human being lives or dies. "Who can, before God and humanity, pretend with impunity to claim such a right?" L'Osservatore Romano said. "Who - and on the basis of which criteria - can establish to whom the 'privilege' to live should be given?"
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On Friday, the feeding tube that provided Terri Schiavo with the normal care of food and water was withdrawn. Barring last-minute intervention, Terri has now begun to die by starvation. One can pray that her husband will have a change of heart or that the state of Florida will find new grounds to intervene so that, in spite of what transpired on Friday, a safer course might still be taken and that Terri "continue to receive nourishment, comfort and loving care" -- as we Catholic Bishops of Florida have continually advocated.
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"Bishop Lynch, I have one more question for you," Scott said. "Did you or anyone working on your behalf, including your lawyers, give a directive that the distribution of materials regarding Terri Schindler Schiavo was to be barred?" Scott said he would like to hear from Bishop Lynch on this matter. "If the bishop did not take such action, maybe he can explain why students were met by the same response at virtually all of the parishes. If the bishop did take such action, maybe he can explain why he would do something so incomprehensible."
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President Bush signed emergency legislation sent to him by Congress early Monday to allow Terri Schiavo's parents to ask a federal judge to prolong their daughter's life, capping days of emotional debate over who should decide life and death. "In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life," Bush said in a statement after signing the bill.
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To say that a patient is in a "vegetative state" is to speak metaphorically. The patient is still a human being, not a plant. Though the body's debilities do not permit the patient's soul to display its full splendor, that soul is still there. It is present in all its rationality, and therefore the patient is entitled to all the fundamental rights inherent to a human being. While it is legitimate to use the expression persistent vegetative life as a technical simplification for medical purposes, one cannot turn a description of the patient's state into a definition of the patient. One cannot attribute to a technical description a philosophical meaning it does not have. Even when in a state of "persistent vegetative life," a human being remains a human being.
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According to attorney Barbara Weller, one of the attorneys representing Terri's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler Sr., when her parents and attorneys visited Terri at the Woodside Hospice where she resides to tell her they were going to remove her feeding tube, Terri began to cry and tried to say "I want to live." Attorney Weller said she had a difficult time calming Terri down.
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What do Judge Moore, Sandra Cano and Norma Jean McCorvey have in common with Terry Schiavo? Each has become a principle actor in the legal test for how far the law can go in a lie. When Norma Jean McCorvey, the Roe in Roe v. Wade, approached lawyers in order to get an abortion, she lied about how her child had been conceived, asserting she had been gang-raped. Stoned or drunk during most of the proceedings, she never actually got the abortion. She gave her child up for adoption instead.
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In the United States of America the killing of innocent human beings is prohibited by law. Or is it? Over 1.6 million human beings are routinely, legally killed by abortion under court sanction each year. The U. S. Constitution gives "rights" not to human beings, but to "persons." The Supreme Court abortion decision of 1973 ruled that human beings before birth, i.e., in the womb, were not persons because they were not "capable of meaningful life." Today, the life of a young woman, Terri Schiavo, is threatened for similar reasons.
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For some time now, pro-life Catholics fighting to save the life of Terri Schiavo, have been clamouring for a statement or intervention by the bishop of St. Petersburg Florida, Terri's home diocese. Now that such a statement has finally been made, the same pro-lifers might well be wishing Bishop Robert N. Lynch had maintained his silence. The Florida Catholic Bishops' conference has stated plainly that Terri's means of receiving food and water does not constitute 'extraordinary' means of preserving her life, and is a simple requirement of ordinary care. For some time now, pro-life Catholics fighting to save the life of Terri Schiavo, have been clamouring for a statement or intervention by the bishop of St. Petersburg Florida, Terri's home diocese. Now that such a statement has finally been made, the same pro-lifers might well be wishing Bishop Robert N. Lynch had maintained his silence. The Florida Catholic Bishops' conference has stated plainly that Terri's means of receiving food and water does not constitute 'extraordinary' means of preserving her life, and is a simple requirement of ordinary care.
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The bulk of Scott's criticism was reserved for Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida. "Where is this Catholic 'leader' when one of his parishioners needs him the most?" Scott asked. "Every member of the clergy, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, should be pounding the pulpit every Sunday, insisting that Terri's life be spared," Scott said. "Every member of the clergy should be speaking out about Terri every day until this matter is resolved in Terri's favor. This is not the time for cowardice, complacency or weakness. Terri's life depends on it. Any member of the clergy who does not do all he can to save Terri's life is party to any disaster that befalls her."
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America suffers from the rule of judges supplanting the rule of law and the will of the people. Men in black robes, rather than legislators, are making and repealing laws. Man's laws and natural laws are being undermined not by legal reasoning but fiat. Let us look at the judicial homicide case of Terri Schiavo. In 'virulent judicial activism,' Circuit Judge George Greer of Pinellas County, Florida has recently stated he is no longer "comfortable" in granting Terri Schiavo another 'stay of execution.'
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The father and brother of Terri Schindler-Schiavo will join with Ted Hires of The Justice Coalition at a press conference in Jacksonville, Fl., Monday to announce the entry of the crime-fighting group into the case as a victims advocate. The Justice Coalition will engage in the legal process with the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) to identify if, due to published reports, Terri Schiavo was a victim of negligent treatment at the hands of her husband, Michael Schiavo and the health care system in place to provide her care, according to Hires.
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Today, at 5 p.m., E.S.T. a judge's order staying Terri's execution expires. That's right, she is under a stay of execution, enabling her dear parents to get some judicial assistance to stop the planned killing. Oh, I know, many of my readers will not like this blunt description, but it is nonetheless true. Terri is a human person, not a vegetable. As far as her potential to improve her communications skills goes, we simply do not know what can happen. We all welcomed the wonderful story, several weeks back now, concerning Sarah Scantlin of Hutchinson, Kansas, who was similarly limited in her communicative ability after an accident twenty years ago, who began to speak. I am sure that her mother is watching the events in Dunedin, Florida today! The whole world is.
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In a case that has drawn attention from around the world, a judge on Friday extended for three weeks the stay keeping Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in place. Schiavo's parents have been in a long, bitter struggle with her husband, Michael Schiavo, to keep her alive. She collapsed 15 years ago Friday, when a chemical imbalance possibly triggered by an eating disorder caused her heart to stop beating and cut off oxygen to her brain.
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"The lack of clear, decisive action by Bishop Lynch and far too many of his brother bishops across Florida and across the nation has been more than disappointing," Starrs said in a press release. "It is shameful that any bishop could find it acceptable to sit by virtually silent while one of the flock is brutally and publicly murdered," said Starrs. "Terri is a human being who deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. We must not permit a slow, painful death to be imposed on her."
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The mission of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) is to uphold the truth of the Catholic Faith in the science and practice of medicine. In July 2003, the CMA published a statement regarding the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration in the case of Mrs. Terri Schindler-Schiavo. The circumstances surrounding this case have been widely publicized. In 2003, after summarizing the ethical directives found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care, we concluded that based upon the current teaching of the Church the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration could not be justified.Two subsequent events compel us to update our former statement to uphold the truth and defend the life of Mrs. Schindler-Schiavo.
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The husband of a severely brain-damaged woman believes he can remove the feeding tube keeping her alive Feb. 22, but an attorney for her parents said Wednesday that pending legal issues likely will keep it from happening that soon. Having suffered another round of losses at the state 2nd District Court of Appeal last week, Terri's Schiavo's parents now are focusing on issues pending in the state court to block their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, from stopping the feedings.
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In response to several reader's emails asking if a psychiatrist had ever profiled Michael Schiavo's demeaner or possible psychiatric problems, I offer the following 2004 expert witness testimony. Mindful that this is an expert witness in behalf of the Schindler's position and therefore prejudicial to Michael's case. However, according to Dr. Lieberman's testimony, Michael's own psychiatrist warned the Schindlers to call the police.
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It is a tragedy that Terri and her family have been forced to endure this abuse. It is time that Terri's life and rights as a human being be defended and this evil being perpetrated against her is stopped. The battle to save Terri Schiavo from murder by starvation and dehydration will not end until there is victory for Terri.
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CCI NOTES: Attorney Ken Connor - who represented Governor Jeb Bush in Schiavo v. Bush - responded to the back to the Tampa Sun Sentinel about Terri Schiavo's due process rights recently. Interestingly, in last Friday's (1/28/05) hearing (which dealt with this very issue) attorney George Felos, representing Mr. Schiavo, insinuated that the court shouldn't be concerned if Terri Schiavo did not have her own legal representation throughout this process because she is unable to participate with counsel. Which is to say, unless you have a lawyer you can talk to, you have no civil rights? As the situation in Florida becomes a mockery of human dignity and justice, we will continue to bring you news.
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A new report issued by the inspector general's office of Florida's Department of Health indicates that previous complaints against Michael Schiavo concerning alleged abuse and neglect of his brain damaged wife, Terri Schindler Schiavo, may have been swept under the rug resulting in a massive cover-up of alleged improprieties and possible criminal wrongdoing in the case.
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Who is George Felos? He is Michael Schiavo's attorney and has been a key proponent of putting Terri Schiavo to death. To say Felos is a diabolical servant of Satan is an understatement. George Felos' book, "Litigation as Spiritual Practice" (Blue Dolphin Publishing, 2002) contains the following quotes...
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Common sense and basic human decency require Terri be given back to her parents. For the diabolically minded - like Michael Schiavo and his twisted attorneys - mercy, charity and human dignity mean nothing when money, or perhaps even more sinister motives, are involved. When Terri Schiavo is put to death, a brain damaged woman will not be the only casualty. As Americans, we will be entering a new chapter of our nation's tragic decline, one in which the truths we once held to be self-evident are no longer even relevant. For every American, that is a fate worse than death.
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Terri Schiavo's parents are offering Michael Schiavo everything they have if he'll just walk away and let Terri live. The Schindlers made that very public challenge to the husband of their brain-damaged daughter Friday; the two sides have been locked in a legal battle over Terri's fate for years. "He's nowhere to be found," Terri's father, Robert Schindler, said. "Let Michael Schiavo stand right where I am now, in front of all these cameras and microphones, and then you ask him the questions: Why will he not give Terri back to our family?"
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Terri Schiavo, the brain damaged Florida woman in a fight for her life, faces a new crisis. As tens of thousands of Americans rallied on the ellipse January 24 to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision refusing to hear Florida's defense of "Terri's law." The Florida legislature passed the law in 2003 to force Terri's husband/guardian, Michael Schiavo, to reinsert Terri's feeding tube preventing her gruesome death by dehydration and starvation. Florida's Supreme Court struck down the law in 2004. The U.S. Supreme Court's action Monday clears the way for Michael to legally kill his wife. Was the timing of the decision on the day of the March for Life an ironic coincedence or a deliberate slap in the face to millions of pro-life Americans?
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The long legal saga pitting the parents of a severely brain-damaged woman against her husband may be winding down -- if, as widely expected, the U.S. Supreme Court refuses this week to consider an appeal filed by Gov. Jeb Bush. It is risky to predict what the high court will decide Friday, when the justices are scheduled to accept or reject the governor's appeal in the case involving Terri Schiavo. No one knows what they will do, only that they could release some decision the following Monday.
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"They started off by dressing her in wool sweaters and long pants, then wrapped her in a wool blanket - to 'sweat her out' - to make her deyhdrate faster," Ford said. She was horrified, especially because it was only October and it's still hot in Florida in October. "This is not a painless or dignified way to die," Ford said. "It's against the law to dehydrate and starve to death a prisoner on death row. Why should we allow it to be done to a disabled woman - or anybody?" The cruelty Ford has seen Terri endure is "not even believable," she said. "In this case, Dr. Kevorkian would be more humane than what they intend to do to Terri."
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The law is clear on what should happen to Terri Schiavo, a noted bioethicist said Thursday: Her feeding tube should be removed. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist and author, predicted the tube that has kept Schiavo alive for 14 years will be taken out by the end of the year. "That is what the courts ultimately will go to," Caplan said. "I know what they're going to decide." Caplan said he sympathizes with the family, and that both Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, seem to be acting with "loving motives."
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Another round of legal battles begins this week to save the life of Theresa Schiavo. The brain-damaged woman, has lived in a Pinellas County hospice facility for nearly five years while her husband and guardian Michael Schiavo awaits permission from the Pinellas County court to remove her feeding tube and cause her death by starvation and dehydration.
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The deck is currently stacked against Terri, and we must do what we can to defend her right to life. As grassroots apologists for life, American Life League is recommending that Bishop Robert N. Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, in which Terri resides, receive phone calls, letters and e-mails imploring that Terri be vigorously defended by the shepherd into whose care she has been entrusted by the Church. The Holy Father has spoken - starving Terri to death is not an option. Strong moral leadership and firm action from her bishop could help save Terri's life. Contact information for Bishop Lynch is presented below. Immediately following this list is the most recent news update from attorney Barbara Weller.
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Despite the widely believed claims of her husband, Terri Schiavo is purposefully interactive, curious and expressive with her parents, according to a surprised lawyer who visited for the first time the brain-damaged Florida woman embroiled in a euthanasia dispute. After a 45-minute visit Christmas Eve, attorney Barbara Weller concluded Schiavo was so alert that she "should have been gathered around the Christmas dinner table enjoying the holiday with her family."
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The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents the parents of Terri Schiavo in a legal battle to keep their daughter alive, today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the Florida case in which the Florida Supreme Court declared unconstitutional "Terri's Law" - a state law enabling Florida Governor Jeb Bush to save Terri from starvation and dehydration. The ACLJ today filed an amicus brief with the high court on behalf of Mary and Robert Schindler - Terri's parents - in support of a petition filed by Governor Bush asking the high court to take the case.
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Terri Schiavo's parents won an indefinite ban on the removal of their daughter's feeding tube Friday, prompting their son-in- law's attorney to ponder ending their fight. ``I think we are coming very close, if we are not here already, where proceeding in the judicial system is futile,'' said George Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo in his quest for court permission to stop feeding his brain-damaged wife.
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Florida Governor Jeb Bush intends to appeal the decision overturning a law written to protect Terri Schiavo's life to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, his attorneys have filed a request with Florida's top court to make sure Terri's estranged husband doesn't take her life before the Supreme Court has a chance to hear his appeal.
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Both Gov. Jeb Bush and Terri Schiavo's parents will pursue appeals aimed at keeping the brain-damaged woman alive, their attorneys said Friday after the second in a pair of courtroom defeats. Bush will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to restore the balance of power between Florida's judicial branch and the legislative and executive branches, attorney Ken Connor said. ``This case is not only about Terri Schiavo, but also about the role of the courts and the Legislature and the governor,'' he said.
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It seems that we have become rather selective in our outrage. When someone forcibly starves and dehydrates a defenseless person to their untimely death without the benefit of a judicial nod, we are shocked and appalled at the lack of humanity and we become hopeful that the heaviest sentence the legal system can muster will be applied to the offender. Yet, when a judge rubber stamps the very same treatment, we turn our heads in utter apathy.
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Terri Schiavo's estranged husband Michael submitted papers on Monday with the Florida Supreme Court asking it to uphold it's previous decision unanimously overturning Terri's Law. The measure, passed by the state legislature, allowed Governor Bush to ask doctors to reinsert Terri's feeding tube, preventing a painful starvation death.In the papers, George Felos, the euthanasia advocate who is Michael's lead attorney, calls Bush's reasons for wanting a hearing "meritless," and urges the state's high court to not change its mind.
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Hours prior to addressing an overflow gathering at a pro-life banquet Sept. 18, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, and an outspoken right-to-life advocate, visited with Terri Schiavo. The visit was the first time the priest has visited the disabled young woman who has been at the center of a contentious legal struggle between her husband, Michael, who wants to have the feeding tube that sustains her, removed. Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, believe she can benefit from rehabilitative therapy.
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Attorneys for the parents of a woman at the center of a right-to-die case argued Thursday she would have been profoundly affected by new Catholic teachings on end-of-life issues. "Our case is pretty simple: I say the pope would have changed her mind," said David Gibbs, the new lead attorney for the parents of severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo.
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We call on Terri Schiavo's bishop, His Excellency Robert Lynch, the Florida Catholic Bishops, and all the bishops of the United States to denounce the court's failure to protect the religious, civil, and human rights of Terri Schiavo and demand Terri's protection under the first amendment of the Constitution. We call on all the faithful to pray for Terri and her family. Legalizing the murder of the sick and helpless is an outgrowth and extension of the judicial tyranny illustrated by Roe v. Wade which allowed the murder of the unborn. A civilized people must resist it or risk their own continued existence as a free nation.
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The Catholic Media Coalition, a group of Catholic journalists, writers, and web site hosts, issued a statement today deploring the action taken by 55 self-proclaimed "leading bio-ethicists" who signed an amici curiae brief siding with Michael Schiavo, asking that the Florida Supreme Court rule in favor of doctors removing the feeding tube from Schiavo's brain-damaged, estranged wife, Teresa Schindler Schiavo.
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"An Australian woman who committed suicide two years ago surrounded by supporters and euthanasia activists was not dying of cancer at the time of her death, an official post-mortem report has confirmed. The country's leading euthanasia campaigner -- who knew ahead of Nancy Crick's death that she was cancer-free but did not make that public -- said in response to the report's release that the point was immaterial." CCI observes that whether the point was 'immaterial' or not should be from the vantage point of the killed, rather than the killers...
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There is no reason for this wonderful young woman to die. With proper medical care and therapy there is hope for Terri. Not only do these people insist on executing my daughter, they are trying to do it as quickly as possible. We ask that families and parents out there show their support by contacting the Florida Supreme Court and urging them not to rush through this case. It is amazing to think that, in America, it is easier to execute someone who has committed no crime than someone who has. Why is my daughter still not allowed to see her mother? She is alive, she is aware, she knows and misses her family. With your help, the truth will be told.
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Michael Schiavo will not necessarily wait for the state Supreme Court to rule in the battle over his wife's fate before again trying to remove her feeding tube, his attorney said Friday. Schiavo could ask a court to lift an automatic stay in the case that prevents him from removing the feeding tube so his wife can die, attorney George Felos said. If the stay were lifted, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube could be removed without further court action, Felos said.
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Last month Pope John Paul II stated unequivocally that a person who is ill always has the right to food and water, even if it must be administered to him through a feeding tube. The Pope made it clear that removal of nutrition and hydration from patients in a vegetative state who are not otherwise dying is "gravely immoral". In Catholic language that means it is unambiguously forbidden. The reaction of some prominent Catholic ethicists has been a reflection of the divide in medical ethics...
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"It was a sad Easter for Robert and Mary Schindler and their daughter, Terri, the 40-year-old brain-disabled Florida woman whose estranged husband, Michael Schiavo, is trying to end her life by removing her feeding tube. There was no basket of pretty things chosen and brought to her by her loving mother, no fluffy toy bunny, no sweet-smelling flowers, and no Holy Communion. Indeed, she's not allowed to see her parents or her priest at all."
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VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II said Saturday the removal of feeding tubes from people in vegetative states was immoral, and that no judgment on their quality of life could justify such "euthanasia by omission." John Paul made the comments to participants of a Vatican conference on the ethical dilemmas of dealing with incapacitated patients, entering into a debate that has sparked court battles in the United States and elsewhere.
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Gov. Jeb Bush and the parents of a severely brain-damaged woman won appellate court rulings in their favor Friday on two legal issues in their quest to keep the woman alive against her husband's wishes. Florida's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that Pinellas Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird did not follow judicial rules when he denied Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, the ability to intervene in the constitutional challenge to a law aimed at keeping the 40-year-old woman alive.
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Supporters of mentally disabled Terri Schiavo will hold a demonstration protesting her abuse in Florida. For infomration see www.terrisfight.org. supporters are planning a demonstration on the steps of the Criminal Court House in Clearwater, Florida to demand Pinellas County's State Attorney, Bernie McCabe, conduct a full investigation into charges of abuse against Terri Schindler-Schiavo by her guardian.
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In an emailed statement, EWTN Catholic television notified concerned Catholics that the contraversial program "As A Salesman - What's Wrong With Assisted Suicide" planned for airing on Jan 5 will not be shown, according to Debi Vinnedge, one of the organizers of the protest. EWTN was bombarded by letters such as the one below, indicating that the hospice movement has done more to advance the culture of death in this country than it has been given credit for.
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Schiavo is far from the only such case where starting and stopping feeding tubes raise difficult moral questions. Pope John Paul II, suffering from the creeping debilitation of Parkinson's disease, may well face this same fate. The pope's parkinsonism will eventually cause him to lose his ability to swallow food. He then will need to receive nutrition and hydration by medical means...
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Terri Schiavo is being cared for at a Pinellas Park hospice. The legal fight over her has drawn international attention and supporters led by her devoutly Catholic parents have declared Sunday as Terri Schindler day. Catholic congregations nationwide are being encouraged prayers for her and are marking her 40th birthday on Dec. 3. The see www.catholicmediacoalition.org for more information on Nov. 30, Terri Schiavo day.
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"If there is no God, no life after death, no higher law, and society may permit euthanasia, why can society not decide to make euthanasia mandatory for those who have begun to die? What is to stop the coming generation from kicking aged Baby Boomer and Gen Xers into their graves? In 1938, the father of "Baby Knauer," a retarded blind boy missing an arm and leg, appealed to Germany's ruler to let his son die. Permission was granted. That leader was a father of the New Europe, and, as it now appears, a man ahead of his time."
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"The battle to save Terri Schiavo from murder by starvation and dehydration is not over. We must not rest until this battle is won," said American Life League president Judie Brown. "Unfortunately her husband and many in the Florida courts want her dead. That is why American Life League is joining the call to commemorate November 30 as Terri Schindler-Schiavo Day, and imploring the nation's Catholic bishops, clergy and laity to take up Terri's fight in both prayer and action."
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CMC calls on all people of good will to pray and sacrifice personally for Terri Schiavo on November 30th, but also to ask their parishes and congregations to include her in the prayers of the faithful and the prayer intentions of the day.
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The Catholic Media Coalition announced today the designation of the first Sunday of Advent, November 30th, as Terri Schindler Schiavo Day. Terri Schiavo is the Florida woman brain-damaged after an unexplained collapse fourteen years ago. Since 1998 her legal guardian, Michael Schiavo (Terri's adulterous husband who has two children by another woman) has relentlessly sought her death by dehydration.
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The time has come to face the gut wrenching possibility that conscious cognitively disabled people whose feeding tubes are removed--as opposed to patients who are actively dying and choose to stop eating--may die agonizing deaths. This, of course, has tremendous relevance in the Terri Schiavo case and many others like it. Indeed, the last thing anyone wants is for people to die slowly and agonizingly of thirst, desperately craving a refreshing drink of orange Gatorade they know will never come.
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"Here is a simple rule of thumb for pro-life Americans: ignore all of the political and policy judgments of the National Right to Life Committee. They have affirmed the very principles that have given rise to the culture of death in which we find ourselves at this point in salvation history. All of their pragmatism and incrementalism have failed the cause of saving preborn babies and are failing now the cause of those threatened by euthanasia."
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"I have covered highly visible, dramatic "right to die" cases-including those of Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan-for more than 25 years. Each time, most of the media, mirroring one another, have been shoddy and inaccurate. The reporting on the fierce battle for the life of 39-year-old Terri Schiavo has been the worst case of this kind of journalistic malpractice I've seen."
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Randall Terry flew to Florida and played a leading role raising an avalanche of media converage and grass roots support for Terri Schindler Schiavo as she lay dying of starvation. Mr. Terry, a well know pro-life activist, presents a brief narration of events during the whirlwind of activity that culminated in Terri's feeding tube being re-inserted. CCI was a small part of this fight too, and we are grateful to Mr. Terry for his selfless service to the unborn and the unwanted.
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"Terri is alive. She is kept alive by the same things that keep me alive - Food, water, air. Her disability deprives her of the ability to ingest these things, it does not deprive her of the ability to digest them. She may well die in the future from an inability to digest food but it would be murder to cause her death by denying her the food she still has the ability to digest and which continues to provide for her a definite benefit - life itself."
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At this point in the Terri Schiavo case, most people remain very confused as to what the official teachings of the Catholic Church really are with regard to euthanasia. Compounding this problem has been previous questionable testimony by Fr. Murphy misrepresenting the Church's teachings before the Florida court (please see an extensive and sophisticated refutation of Fr. Murphy's testimony by Catholic theologians Dolan and Flattery at before the Schiavo court.)
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"Martyr is a term derived from the Greek (matyria) that means witness. In Christian antiquity martyrs were those who witnessed of a faith in God even unto death. Martyrs witness to a truth that exists beyond space and time, where meaning, values, and purpose have their source and judgment, and where the touchstone between good and evil resides. Martyrs do not kill. Martyrs are killed."
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"If a man dehydrated his dog to death, the New York Times would probably call for his incarceration. Michael Schiavo tried to dehydrate his wife to death and the Times casts him as a benevolent "legal guardian." He is overseeing her "right to die," it editorializes. A right to die? This is a euphemism for a duty to die. The advocates of euthanasia believe that humans deemed inconvenient and useless should die."
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"We, the undersigned, come together in support of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, and her human and civil rights. We are the national spokespersons for the rights of millions of Americans with disabilities whose voices are often not heard over the din of political and religious rhetoric. We come together for those who will be touched by disability in their lifetime and who will need our help to make their voices heard."
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CCI NOTES: Several Catholic groups have recently published information identifying flaws in the model legistlation proposed by the National Right to Life. (For more info, see "NRL Model Legislation") Julie Grimstad is the Director of the Center for the Rights of the Terminally Ill, and has several reservations discussed here. For a related story, see "NRL Proposes Model Laws". For a story on NRL and prior contravery, see "The Zealous Indifference of NRLC's 'No Comment' on Birth Control"
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"Michael Schiavo and his legal team continue to deny Terri her fundamental right to receive the Holy Eucharist. According to most press reports, they allege that allowing Monsignor Malanowski to administer Viaticum to Terri would "cause her distress"... What adds to my incomprehension is that these same individuals reportedly allege that Terri feels no distress from her starvation and dehydration. But setting aside this medical marvel, it is not inconceivable that someone in a persistent vegetative state could find the Holy Eucharist comforting since Viaticum is primarily food for the soul and not for the body.
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"In response to an October 27, 2003 interview with Michael Schiavo on Larry King Live, the parents of Terri Schindler-Schiavo wish to clarify some of the mistruths in Mr. Schiavo's statements..." and also The Interview That Wasn't: Michael Schiavo Got the Usual Larry King Softballs. Here Are the Questions King SHOULD HAVE Asked, by Wesley J. Smith
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"Is Terri Schindler still legally married to Michael Schiavo? If not, then the power of attorney for her, during her incapacity, should fall to her next of kin, most logically - her parents. Michael Schiavo is currently effectively married with children, in a common law arrangement, with another spouse, and while he has benefitted from a 1.7 million dollar lawsuit related to Terri's condition, he has abandoned Terri, hoping to be liberated from Terri upon her death, with no messy divorce necessary..."
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The latest proof that the group calling itself American Civil Liberties Union isn't what it claims to be is its call to starve Terri Schiavo to death. Apparently it thinks the inconvenient and the disabled don't deserve civil liberties, civil rights or anything else. President Bush, on the other hand, today praised Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for preventing the killing. "I believe my brother made the right decision," the president said in response to a reporter's question at a news conference." (Also see related story, "Commies at ACLU Chose Death")
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"The tragic case of Terri Schiavo and her poor family will rapidly bloom into the United States' "euthanasia test case" for the international bioethics and right to die movements. So it is important now to see this connection, and factor it in when listening to media and press reports on Terri's situation... The true and accurate facts involved in this tragic case are being manipulated, thus confusing the public and other decision makers."
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The St. Petersburg Times published this article on May 25, 2001, which profiles George Felos, a nationally known 'right-to-die' attorney who is into yoga, mangos, and according to this paper, "soul talking" to the dead or dying. There is a spiritual battle raging around Terri Schindler Schiavo, and Felos is working overtime trying to have her killed by dehydration/starvation. Felos claims to be inspired by "God." We suspect that he is influenced by the supernatural, but given his attempts to see people killed, is that god more like Vishnu the Destroyer, or Satan himself?
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"This is a case about a judicial system making an error," Dr. Hammesfahr concluded, referring to Judge George Greer granting Michael Schiavo's request to remove Terri's feeding tube.
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Network news outlets across the board and national newspapers - from the New York Times and the Washington Post to the Miami Herald and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution - are misreporting the medical facts of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo story, say her family, doctors and the pro-family organization Focus on the Family. "The media's killing us, and they're killing her, frankly," said Terri's father, Robert Schindler, at a press conference yesterday (10/24). The family and about a dozen people, including doctors and Terri's caregivers, spent an hour trying to school reporters on the facts of case.
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John Dolan and and Father Kevin Flannery S.J. offer the philosophical and Catholic underpinnings of the arguement to spare Terri Schindler Schiavo from euthanasia. "The life of Theresa Schiavo possesses incalculable and inviolable worth and dignity. An attempt to cut off her food and water would be attempted murder. In the words of the Catholic moral theologians cited in the 1992 Resource Paper of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 'the inherent dignity and worth of the human person obligates us to provide this patient with care and support'."
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"What makes this case critical for our consideration is the necessity that Terri Schiavo's life be protected, that Church teaching be applied, and that we give due consideration to the circumstances of our own lives and deaths, and try to prevent this same kind of tragic impasse from occurring within our families and our communities...The Church teaches, that when uncertainty exists in situations such as Terri Schiavo's, then we must show a preference for the preservation of life. This preference is overwhelmingly supported by the facts of Terri Schiavo's particular case, facts which may be examined at: www.terrisfight.org"
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The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) issued this statement from Jane M. Orient, M.D. in response to the emergency action of the Florida legislature to reinstate feeding and hydration of Terri Schindler-Schiavo:"Michael Schiavo says it's cruel to begin rehydration. The opposite is true - dehydration is a cruel, painful death. It is unconscionable that the state would have allowed removal of her feeding tube in the first place-it's nothing less than state-sponsored euthanasia."
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"A state protection agency for disabled persons on Wednesday was planning to launch an investigation into alleged spousal abuse against Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was reinserted this week after intervention by the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush. The investigation by the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, an agency mandated in states and funded by Congress, could play a decisive role in a revived legal battle over who should be the guardian of the 39-year-old Schiavo--her husband or her parents."
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The Sun-Sentinal reported today, "The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that it will aid Michael Schiavo in his fight against Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature, which earlier this week took the remarkable step of passing a law to prevent the Pinellas County man from disconnecting his brain-injured wife from a feeding tube. For months, the ACLU resisted meddling in the dispute that has pitted a husband against his in-laws, believing that the courts were following the long-held legal right of an individual to refuse extraordinary medical measures, even if it hastens their death." This should surprise no one, as the ACLU was founded by Communists in 1919, which Chuck Morse outlines in an article below the news story...
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"The motivation behind Michael Schiavo's dire quest to end the life of his severely disabled wife is not certain. He has a child and another on the way with another woman but a divorce would suffice in that case. However, there is the suggestion that he has life insurance money pending on her death - a suggestion which he has refused to comment on. Moreover Terri's parents suspect he was to blame for his wife's condition and see that as the reason he has requested her body be cremated. His claim is that Terri told him she did not want to be given extraordinary medical treatment to be kept alive. However, the motivation behind Michael Schiavo's lawyer George Felos, in fighting the case is ideological."
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"Terri Schiavo is showing signs that her kidneys were not damaged during the week she went without food or water in the battle over her fate. Her husband, Michael, has vowed to keep up his fight for the right to stop feeding his wife in the face of opposition from in-laws Bob and Mary Schindler, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature, his attorney said Thursday."
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The National Right to Life Committee is urging state legislatures across the country to protect all the other Terri Schiavos out there. The group has released model legislation intended to protect disabled people from being denied food and fluids. The NRLC calls its blueprint the "Model Starvation and Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention Act."
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While Michael Schiavo's attorneys worked to have Terri put to death, Chris Ferrara of the American Catholic Law Center filed three briefs in defense of Terri. His third brief [See "Ferrara in Defense of Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo"] was a key factor in shaping the events that allowed the Florida state house and senate to pass an emergency bill banning starvation euthanasia in Florida, effectively saving Terri Shiavo's life.
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A state protection agency for disabled persons on Wednesday was planning to launch an investigation into alleged spousal abuse against Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was reinserted this week after intervention by the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush. The investigation by the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, an agency mandated in states and funded by Congress, could play a decisive role in a revived legal battle over who should be the guardian of the 39-year-old Schiavo--her husband or her parents.
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Christian Coalition of America commends the actions of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida state Senate and House of Representatives in defying the culture of death and saving the life of Terri Schiavo. She is the brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was reinserted after the Governor called a special session of the state legislature and after the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation authorizing the Governor to reinsert her feeding tube. Within an hour after the Florida state legislature passed the bill, Governor Bush signed it into law. Governor Bush said, "Like tens of thousands of Floridians who have raised their voices in support of Terri Schiavo's right to life, I have been deeply moved by these tragic circumstances."
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CLEARWATER - Terri Schiavo was in stable condition late Wednesday and able to be released from the hospital. But it will be several days before doctors know whether the 39-year-old woman's kidneys were damaged by going almost a full week without liquid nutrition supplied through a tube inserted in her stomach, said Deborah Bushnell, an attorney for husband Michael Schiavo.
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CCI NOTES: In the last 4 months, CCI has been actively involved with the Catholic Media Coalition, in raising awareness of Terri Schiavo's impending execution by dehydration and starvation. During that time, CMC and CCI received virtually no support from the Florida bishops and in fact have learned that Bishop Robert Lynch of the St. Petersburg Diocese ordered his priests to stay away from Terri. Joni Durling is also a member of the CMC, and she responds to Bishop Lynch's lame press release regarding the denial of Communion to Terri as she was being slowly killed, nor does it speak to Bishop Lynch's disinterest and ignorance of Church teachings on euthanasia. Bishop Lynch, to whom all American bishops have defered in this crisis, has behaved in a disgraceful manner, and continues to do so.
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OCTOBER 21, 2003 may have been the most important day in 39-year-old Terri Schiavo's life. She had been without any food or water for six days, per the order of Judge George Greer of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Clearwater, Florida. Terri's family believed she was holding up well. But her body could surely not take much more of being deprived of all fluids.
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In reference to the inadequate statements the bishops have issued, Brown said, "I am reminded of Christ's admonition to the Pharisees in Matthew 24. 'Blind guides' appears to be a fitting description of shepherds who have not taken the first meaningful public step to stand between this young woman and her executioners. The Florida bishops' silence has sent a clear message that they lack the courage to stand against this injustice."
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Late Tuesday afternoon, October 21, after over 6 days without food or water, Terri Schiavo was taken by ambulance to a hospital from the Woodlawn Hospice, where she was being starved and dehydrated. Catholic Citizens of Illinois is grateful that the Florida state legislature and Governor Jeb Bush were able to intercede to save Terri's life. Thank you to all Christians in the United States and the world who prayed for an end to this incredible travesty. In spite of this good news, Terri's condition is not known at this time, nor do we know the extent to which the euthanasia has damaged her body. We will update our web site as we have more news.
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"The withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from Mrs. Terri Schiavo will result in her death. The tube feeding itself does not impose an excessive burden on the patient. Discontinuing nutrition and hydration in this circumstance violates in its intention the distinction between "causing death" and "allowing death." (Catholic Medical Assoc. Bioethical Principles of Medical Practice #9) Therefore, in view of these teachings and directives, we must conclude that at this time the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from Mrs. Terry Schiavo cannot be justified by currently promulgated Catholic moral principles."
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A Florida Senate panel is giving its approval to a measure that would let Governor Jeb Bush issue a "stay" in the case of a brain-damaged woman, whose feeding tube was removed last week by her husband's order.
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"As members of the Catholic media, we beg you, in the name of our Lord Jesus, to intervene in the case of Terry Schiavo, and, by extension, in the lives of the millions of persons with special needs in Florida and throughout our country whose lives will be greatly endangered if Ms. Schiavo is left to die, or, more accurately, murdered through the present withdrawal of food and water."
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Clearwater, FL October 19, 2003: The Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, has called a special session of the Florida Legislature for Monday, October 20, 2003. At that time, Florida's Speaker of the House will introduce "Terri's Bill". By Florida law, two thirds majority vote are required to have a topic entered.Urgent Action needed. PLEASE Call and/or write James King in the Florida Legislature and demand that want emergency legislation be passed immediately--today--to create a moratorium on starving/dehydration such as Terri is being forced to endure. Phone: 850-487-5229 or 850-487-5030, or send an email to king.james@leg.state.fl.us
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Judicial Watch has issued a press release headlined, "Judge Ordering Terri Schiavo's Death Violated Eighth Amendment ("Cruel and Unusual Punishment") & Florida's Abuse and Neglect Statutes" indicating that Gov. Bush should direct Florida's Dept. of Children and Family Services to intervene, resume nutrition and investigate misconduct.
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(Editors Note: The following report contains a detailed description of death by dehydration that may be unsettling to some readers.)Supporters of both euthanasia and the so-called "right to die" are being criticized for allegedly capitalizing on the case of Teri Schindler Schiavo to benefit their own cause. Schiavo is the disabled Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed under court order Wednesday at the request of her husband and over the objections of her other family members.
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Responding to the court-imposed removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, the International Order of Alhambra called for prayer in support of Terri. "Following our Holy Father's intervention, it goes without saying that my prayers and the prayers of the entire Order of Alhambra are with Terri Schiavo and her family," Edward Fiorella stated. Fiorella is the Order of Alhambra's Supreme Commander, which makes him the highest ranking official of this hundred-year-old Catholic fraternal organization. The Alhambra's primary focus is service to the needs of the mentally and cognitively disabled. "As Catholics belonging to a Catholic organization," Fiorella continued, "we support the Church's teaching on the dignity and value of every human life. This includes Terri's. Therefore, I have asked our members and the members of our ladies' auxiliary to keep praying for Terri."
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September 19, 2003 (www.catholiccitizens.org) - A Florida woman's life will end when her feeding tube is removed on October 15 by order of Florida Circuit Judge George Greer. The 'mercy killing' of Terri Schindler-Schiavo has drawn national attention, yet few Americans appreciate the fact that even Adolph Hitler couldn't overcome the public outcry over his euthanasia programs, and was forced to rescind them. Ironically, the outcry in Germany was prompted by a Roman Catholic bishop, which contrasts remarkably with the tepid response to Mrs. Schiavo's fate exhibited by the bishops in Florida and the United States.In the end, Terri Schindler Schiavo may be the lucky one. While she goes on to her eternal reward, nervous Christians are left to fend for themselves in a hostile, increasingly pagan culture, without moral support from their religious 'leaders,' and facing imprisonment or extermination from judges who have transcended Nazism and moved into realm of the Satanic. It takes a lot of nerve for a people capable of such depravity and moral cowardice to ask God to bless America. His love may be infinite, but His patience has got to be wearing very, very thin.
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Barb Kralis calls Cardinal Ratzinger's office, and "Fr. Jorge ... said that Rome has no jurisdiction, no competence over what goes on in the United States, that it is the matter for Bishop Lynch. I told him Bp. Lynch wasn't doing anything and Fr. Jorge said he was sorry that this was so hard on so many faithful in the U.S. but Rome nor the Pope nor Cd. Ratzinger could tell Bp. Lynch in his See (St. Petersburg, Fla.) what do so about this matter. Again, I told him that if Rome didn't intervene, Terri would start to die a most horrible death tomorrow. And, again Fr. Jorge said Rome had no control over the U.S. Bishops (he doesn't know how true his words are!). I pleaded that the Pope surely could intervene with a statement that would influence the federal judge, and he said absolutely not. He said he was truly sorrowful and all the consolation he could give me was to pray for a miracle. I was then cut off quickly by Fr. Jorge with the parting words, "Bye Bye, I must go now. No more discussion on this matter."
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Terri Schindler-Schiavo's life-sustaining feeding tube was removed this afternoon in compliance with a judge's order as her mother and her husband Michael Schiavo, who demanded the removal, looked on. An advocate for the family on the scene told WorldNetDaily the relatively simple surgical procedure was conducted at the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., where Terri resides. Doctors say if there is no further intervention, she will die in 10-14 days.
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"The euthanasia murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo by starvation and dehydration which began yesterday at 2:00 p.m. is a violation of her right to life and a crime against humanity. The Catholic Media Coalition condemns it unequivocally and calls on every Catholic bishop in the United states to express public outrage against this violation of Terri's right to life and her human dignity. We also call on her bishop, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg to defend her right to receive the sacraments and the comfort of the faith in this time of trial."
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Terri Schindler-Schiavo does not want to die. She would like to go home. And she tried to convey this to her father in no uncertain terms by sitting bolt upright and trying to get out of her chair when told she might be killed, her family has revealed. The stunning news was released at noon Eastern today by Terri's father, Robert Schindler, at the 'round-the-clock vigil outside the Woodside Hospice facility in Pinellas Park, Fla., where his daughter's court-ordered death by starvation is scheduled to begin tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern. At that time, her husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo is scheduled to give the order to disconnect the 39-year-old brain-disabled woman's feeding tube that has provided her with sustenance for the past 13 years.
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An appeals court refused to block Tuesday the removal of a severely brain-damaged woman's feeding tube, one of the last hopes her parents had for keeping her alive. The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland rejected two motions filed by an attorney for the parents of Terri Schiavo, who is scheduled to have the feeding tube removed Wednesday at her husband's request.
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TAMPA - A federal judge will not block the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Bob and Mary Schindler must again look to a state appeal court, and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court, in their bid to stop the scheduled Oct. 15 removal of their daughter's feeding tube, U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara advised Friday. Lazzara said he has no jurisdiction to get involved in Florida's business, despite a plea from Gov. Jeb Bush asking him to do so to keep Schiavo alive.
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Gov. Jeb Bush files a memorandum arguing that removing the feeding tube without first determining, by medically accepted means, whether Terri Schiavo can eat and drink on her own, and without first giving her any rehabilitative therapy that would help her do that, deprives her of her life without due process of law.
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The Catholic Media Coalition recently sent letters to over 200 Catholic Bishops asking them to make public statements in defense of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, a disabled woman from Florida who is coherent and communicating, but requires a feeding tube. Her husband and "guardian" has obtained a court order to stop her tube feeding, which will effectively starve her to death and allow him to inherit hundreds of thousands of dollars in trust funds. Bishop Raymond Burke is to be applauded for his courage in refusing to stand idle while this barbaric event takes place. Terri's feeding is scheduled to be discontinued in only a few weeks, on October 15. For more information on how you can help, see www.terrisfight.org.
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"Florida industrial rockers Hell on Earth are planning to host an on-stage suicide during their October 4th show at St. Petersburg's State Theater. A terminally ill member of a euthanasia society, whose identity and condition have not been revealed, intends to raise awareness for the cause of dying with dignity by committing suicide during the concert, according to the band's singer, Billy Tourtelot."
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Judge George Greer, of the Probate Division of the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, was expected to set a date for removing the feeding tube Terri depends upon for sustenance, but delayed his decision after hearing from two attorneys for the Schindlers. Pat Anderson read three affidavits into the record, two of them by two speech-language therapists stating Terri could be taught to eat and talk. Celia Bachman argued that removing Terri's tube without giving her a chance to learn to eat would be "state-assisted suicide" - a violation of Florida law. Greer said he'd make a decision some time next week.
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A federal judge on Tuesday refused to block a state judge from ordering the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. But U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara gave Robert and Mary Schindler 10 days to amend a lawsuit filed Saturday in what their lawyer admitted was haste caused by fear that their daughter might die from illness during the weekend.At an emergency hearing, Lazzara openly doubted whether he has jurisdiction to intervene in a right-to-die case that has been winding through state courts for five years. He termed the Schindlers' new federal lawsuit a ``quintessential shotgun pleading,'' but added: ``given the importance of what's at stake here, I'm going to proceed.''
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After years of criticism for not taking a public stand in the matter, the bishops of the Florida Catholic Conference issued a statement late Wednesday regarding the euthanasia controversy involving Terri Schindler Schiavo. In a press release, the Florida Bishops said "...if (Terri's) feeding tube were to be removed to intentionally cause her death, or because her life is perceived to be useless, or because it is believed that the quality of her life is such that she would be better off, this would be wrong."
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Friends and family of a disabled woman at the center of a Florida euthanasia controversy expressed outrage Monday that Florida's Catholic bishops are pleading for the life of an admitted murderer on death row but have not come to the defense of the disabled woman whose husband is seeking to have the state end her life... The Florida Catholic Conference called on Gov. Jeb Bush Monday to commute to "life in prison without possibility of parole" the death sentence of Paul Hill... "In the interest of consistency, I would think the Florida bishops would also unequivocally condemn and renounce the actions of Michael Schiavo pursuing the death of his own wife through the Florida courts," said Pamela Hennessy, a media spokesperson for the Schindler family. On 8/26 Gov. Jeb Bush sent a letter to the Florida court, asking that an impartial and unbiased guardian be appointed for Terri while an independent investigator looks into alleged conflict of interest on the part of Terri's husband, who is remarried and stands to collect close to a million dollars in trust money when Terri dies. On 8/27 Judge George W. Greer rejected Governor Jeb Bush's letter requesting he appoint a guardian.
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In a case the has nation-wide implications for euthanizing the sick, "the husband of brain-disabled Terri Schindler-Schiavo - whose continued existence is at the heart of a highly charged legal battle - has barred a revered Roman Catholic priest from visiting his wife. As WorldNetDaily reported, Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been locked in a decade-long legal struggle with their son-in-law over care and custody of their daughter, who suffered brain damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances."
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Terri Schindler-Schiavo is scheduled to have her feeding tube removed on September 25, 2003, by court order and against the wishes of her parents (the court decision was prompted by her ex-husband and legal guardian.) The Catholic Media Coalition (CMC) has sent an urgent appeal to Florida's ten Roman Catholic Bishops asking them to speak out publicly on behalf of Terri Schiavo. The 39-year-old Catholic woman, who suffered a medical incident 12 years ago. The Schindlers, Terri's family, are fighting for her life and claim she responds to their visits. Video testimony shows Terri is not in PVS, a persistent vegetative state, a condition necessary for the Florida courts to order death by starvation. A last minute court appeals are in progress. If it is not upheld, the path will be clear for to commence the Terri's starvation, now set for September 25. An Internet petition addressed to Governor Jeb Bush is circulating on Terri's behalf."
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A Catholic media organization (of which CCI web editor Karl Maurer is a member) Wednesday criticized Florida's Catholic bishops for not speaking out in the case of a Catholic woman who is disabled and whose husband is seeking court permission to let her die of starvation and dehydration. In response, the office of the Florida bishop in whose diocese the woman lives re-released a nearly 10-month-old statement explaining that the church "will refrain from passing judgment."
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"The National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) was gratified by the news that Terry Wallis awoke from a coma after 19 years. Executive director, Mary Jane Owen noted: "Whether one considers this a miracle or evidence that the body can heal itself over time, the fact is that our knowledge of what is possible for people with neurological disabilities is limited and the role of negative judgments of the value of a given life can result in devaluation of those of us who live with disabilities."
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"ERA would legalize samesex marriages. ERA would invalidate the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the similar Illinois law passed in 1996. ERA would make samesex marriages a constitutional right based on the plain meaning of the amendment which prohibits sex discrimi nation "on account of sex." Senator Sam Ervin Jr., the leading constitutional lawyer in the U.S. Senate until his retirement, stat ed in Raleigh, NC (22277): "I don't know but one group of people in the United States the ERA would do any good for. That's homosexuals."
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