Terri Schiavo Remembered
On March 31, 2005, Terri Schiavo died in a Florida hospice 13 days after a court had her feeding tube removed. Thus ended a long-standing battle between her parents - who fought for her right to life - and her estranged husband - who fought for her "right to die" (see "Why Must Terri Die?", Pro-Life Reports March 2005). In the views of most pro-life leaders, her intended death was a case of state-sponsored euthanasia.
Terri’s story riveted much of the world over a period of months. Among those who publicly pled for her life were the Vatican and President George W. Bush. But in the end the courts ruled against Robert and Mary Schindler, parents of the 41-year old brain-injured woman whose legal efforts until then had kept Terri alive.
Someone who has not forgotten Terri is 10 year Joshua Heldreth. He was arrested on Good Friday [March 25] for trespassing while attempting to bring a drink of water to Terri. In court Joshua pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 hours of community service and ordered to write an apology for his actions.
In his "apology" Joshua wrote, "Not giving Mrs. Shiavo (sic) food or water was wrong. The reason I had to go on your property was because Jesus would do the same thing. It made me sad that she was so thirsty and it made Jesus sad too. I knew she would die without water and I am called by Jesus to be a defender of the defenceless. I am sorry that you didn't like that and wouldn't allow me to help save her life and one day you will have to tell God why." (LifeSiteNews.com Aug. 31/05)
Terri welcoming a kiss.
Image at right shows Terri
before her 1990 brain injury.
Terri's Death: The Impact on Persons with Disabilities
From "Who Will Remember Terri?" by James Taranto, OpinionJournal.com April 1, 2005
What lasting effect will the Terri Schiavo saga have on American politics? Probably not much. However intense the emotions of the past two weeks, for most voters they're sure to prove fleeting. But there's one important exception: disabled Americans. Some of the most impassioned arguments against killing Terri Schiavo came from profoundly handicapped people:
•• Mary Johnson, left-leaning editor of Ragged Edge magazine: "There isn't a single disability rights activist I've heard from . . . who isn't afraid that this will make liberals hate them even more than they now do."
•• Joe Ford, a Harvard undergraduate with severe cerebral palsy: "Like many others with disabilities, I believe that the American public, to one degree or another, holds that disabled people are better off dead. To put it in a simpler way, many Americans are bigots. A close examination of the facts of the Schiavo case reveals not a case of difficult decisions but a basic test of this country's decency."
•• Eleanor Smith, a self-described liberal agnostic lesbian, whose childhood bout with polio left her con-fined to a wheelchair: "At this point I would rather have a right-wing Christian decide my fate than an ACLU member." Ms. Smith protested last week outside the hospice where Mrs. Schiavo lay dehydrating and starving. Surveys of disabled Americans suggest a strong GOP tilt. According to the National Organization on Disability, Al Gore outpolled George W. Bush among disabled Americans, 56% to 38%, but four years later Mr. Bush beat John Kerry, 52.5% to 46% -- a 24.5-point shift. As late as August, Mr. Kerry had a 10-point lead, which vanished by September, coinciding with the Florida Supreme Court's striking down "Terri's law."
Polls last month suggested that most Americans favored Mrs. Schiavo's death. It was natural for an able-bodied person to think: I wouldn't want to live like that. But someone who is disabled and abjectly dependent on others was more apt to be chilled by the talk of her "poor quality of life" and to think: I wouldn't want to be killed like that
Liberalism once championed the interests of society's most vulnerable members. Today it increasingly champions their "right to die." No one should be surprised if this affects their decisions as they exercise their right to vote.
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R.C. Sproul Decries "Barbarism" of Schiavo Death
Author and Bible teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul is the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. His teaching can be heard daily on the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast on more than 300 radio outlets in the U.S. and throughout 60 countries. Recently his attention was focused, like that of much of the nation, on the tragic and disturbing events of the Terri Schiavo case.
After all that happened to the disabled Florida woman, particularly in the final weeks of her life, Sproul feels the Church in America needs to wake up and recognize the serious threat to life and liberty that is operating in the very midst of the nation's system of government.
"I think it's time to go back and read the Declaration of Independence again," the theologian says. "
What needs to take place, Sproul contends, is what often happens in the history of society faced with one more pivotal occurrences like the killing of Terri Schiavo. "Cultures change, governments change, usually when a single event provokes a crisis," he says. "It brings matters to a head. But we have an ethical crisis in this country, one that's not going to go away, with respect to the sanctity of human life."
The Christian author and minister believes the manner of Terri Schiavo's death reflects changes that have taken place in American culture since the 1960s. "I think now what Terri Schiavo's death marks is the transition to a neo-barbarian culture.
"We've become barbarians, because what we've just witnessed is the willful starving and dehydration of a living human being." And lamentably, he adds, even many Christians believed it was right for the state to sanction the brain-damaged Florida woman's death.
Sproul says the Church needs to rise to the occasion of this crisis and fulfill its role as the conscience of the nation, before it is too late. He is urging Christian citizens to take a stand against euthanasia -- against the barbaric "culture of death" that threatens to overwhelm the mainstream America's ethical sensibilities.
