PINELLAS PARK, Fl., March 31 /Christian Wire Service/ — The following is the text of the statement read by Terri Schindler Schiavo’s sister, Suzanne Vitadamo; and brother, Bobby Schindler, in front of the Woodside Hospice, in Pinellas Park, Florida, at a 4:30 PM, press conference.

As you are aware, Terri is now with God and she has been released from all earthly burdens. After these recent years of neglect at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and care for her, she is finally at peace with God for eternity. We are speaking on behalf of our entire family this evening as we share some thoughts and messages to the world regarding our sister and the courageous battle that was waged to save her life from starvation and dehydration.

We have a message for the volunteers that have helped our family:
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Townhall.com David Limbaugh (archive)

It is just possible, contrary to my original thoughts, that the tragic Schiavo case will not usher in a slippery slope toward euthanasia but cause a double-barreled backlash against both the “Culture of Death” and judicial activism.

To be sure, the legal precedent established in this case, at least in Florida, represents an affirmative devaluation of human life and opens the door to further troubling scenarios, involving the state-sanctioned murder of the inconvenient, based on “quality of life” assessments.

TownHall.com Pat Buchanan (archive)

Terri Schiavo is dead. She did not die a natural death, unless you believe a court order to cut off food and water to a disabled woman until she dies of starvation and thirst is natural.

No, Terri Schiavo was executed by the state of Florida. Her crime? She was so mentally disabled as to be unworthy of life in the judgment of Judge George Greer. The execution was carried out at Woodside Hospice. An autopsy will reveal that Terri’s vital organs shut down for lack of food and water. She did not die of the brain damage she suffered 15 years ago. She was put to death. We have crossed a watershed in America.

Wonder about the belief’s of George Felos, the lawyer of Michael Schiavo and the legal architect behind the starvation of Terri Schiavo? Take a look.

National Review Online Eric Pfeiffer

“I wonder what it would be like to die right now?”

Many of us have asked ourselves this question and Michael Schiavo attorney George Felos is no exception. Unlike most, however, Felos has a story to go along with it.

In his 2002 book Litigation as Spiritual Practice, Felos expresses his belief in the “cosmic law of cause and effect,” in which the human mind is not limited by the constraints of reality. More specifically, if one wants a new car, one could make this dream car manifest “out of the ether.”

His apparent lack of concern for Terri Schiavo’s plight might be better understood in the context of his belief that “[i]n reality you have never been born and never can die.”

Bravo Jessie!

My Way News

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) – As Terri Schiavo entered her 12th full day without food or water, the Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed with her parents Tuesday and joined conservatives in calling for state lawmakers to order her feeding tube reinserted.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was invited by Schiavo’s parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo’s hospice. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of “This is about civil rights!”

“I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips,” he said. “This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes.”

WASHINGTON, March 29 /Christian Wire Service/ — The National Clergy Council, representing conservative church leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions, today applauds the Reverend Jesse Jackson for his visit to Terri Schiavo’s hospice where she is dying from starvation and dehydration. In comments to the media, Rev. Jackson said at the scene that Mrs. Schiavo is dying of “starvation and dehydration and it is unnecessary,” “cruel” and “immoral.”

The Reverend Rob Schenck said about Rev. Jackson’s visit and remarks, “There is nothing for Jesse Jackson to gain here except respect for having done the right thing. This is a rare expression of moral courage from a partisan and we applaud him heartily for it. We pray that it is taken seriously and acted upon urgently by all those with the power to save Terri’s life.”

Rev. Schenck made his comments in Pittsburgh, PA, where he is recovering from brain surgery and has made calls to congressional leaders pleading with them to intervene at this late hour.

Greek Orthodox leader here: Schiavo ‘deserves to live’ Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Metropolitan Maximos of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh has condemned the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.

“She deserves to live,” Maximos, a respected theologian as well as a bishop, said. “A miracle is always possible for her to be restored from minimum consciousness to full consciousness … I beg all those in charge to consider the plea of her parents, with whom I fully identify.”

In an interview yesterday, Maximos said he regretted not speaking earlier and praised Catholic leaders who had advocated the right to life of the brain-damaged Florida woman.

“Murder is a strong word that nobody wants to use, but that is what it is,” he said of her husband’s decision to remove her source of food and water.

Maximos’ comments followed a Thursday statement from the 1 million-member Orthodox Church in America. “Extraordinary means of prolonging life, as well as extraordinary means of ending life, are inconsistent with wise stewardship of God’s gift of life,” said the OCA.

“This is especially crucial in cases in which no clear consensus has been determined with regard to a person’s state, as in the case of Mrs. Terri Schiavo. As such, the removal of Mrs. Schiavo from feeding tubes as a means of hastening her death can in no way be condoned or supported.”

National Review Online Wesley J. Smith

My debate about Terri Schiavo’s case with Florida bioethicist Bill Allen on Court TV Online eventually got down to the nitty-gritty:

Wesley Smith: Bill, do you think Terri is a person?

Bill Allen: No, I do not. I think having awareness is an essential criterion for personhood. Even minimal awareness would support some criterion of personhood, but I don’t think complete absence of awareness does.

If you want to know how it became acceptable to remove tube-supplied food and water from people with profound cognitive disabilities, this exchange brings you to the nub of the Schiavo case — the “first principle,” if you will. Bluntly stated, most bioethicists do not believe that membership in the human species accords any of us intrinsic moral worth. Rather, what matters is whether “a being” or “an organism,” or even a machine, is a “person,” a status achieved by having sufficient cognitive capacities. Those who don’t measure up are denigrated as “non-persons.”

Allen’s perspective is in fact relatively conservative within the mainstream bioethics movement.

“I think the feeding tube should be reinstated. This is a very tough emotional, ethical, political issue. But you know she is brain impaired, she is not brain-dead. And right now they’re starving her to death. They’re dehydrating her to death, and that raises profound ethical questions. That tube should be reinstated. She is not brain-dead. She’s brain impaired. It’s not right to starve her to death. That’s not right ethically.”

On Tuesday morning, March 29, The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the RainbowPUSH Coalition, plans to visit the Woodside Hospice, where Terri lives.

GREEK ORTHODOX METROPOLIS OF CHICAGO STATEMENT ON THE CASE OF TERRI SCHIAVO

Human life is always precious and sacred. This is a fundamental tenet of the Orthodox Christian tradition. Each and every human being is created in the image of God the Creator, and can never cease to be loved by God. The highest measure of a quality of life is our personal relationship with God, and this relationship endures the best and worst conditions in which human beings may find themselves. It even endures physical death in this age, continuing in the age to come. Orthodox Christians are greatly saddened by the condition of Terri Schiavo, and must be saddened by the decision of other persons to purposely end her life by the withdrawal of the basic care of feeding and hydration.
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Jewish World Review Nat Henthoff

http://www.NewsandOpinion.com | Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer has again ordered the removal of 41-year-old Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. As of this writing, attempts by the Republican Congressional leadership and some Democrats are being made to save her, through the courts, but the odds are long. If she dies of dehydration and starvation, this grave injustice can affect the rights of many disabled Americans who do not have clearly written directives as to their treatment when they can no longer speak their wishes.

The fundamental issue in Terri’s case is disability rights — not the right to die. Throughout all the extensive media coverage of the case, there has been only slight mention — usually none at all — that nearly every major disability rights organization has filed legal briefs to prevent what they and I regard as judicial murder. The protests are not only from pro-lifers and the Christian Right.

Wall Street Journal Monday, March 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Liberals cheered when Janet Reno defied the courts to seize Elian Gonzalez.

The sad case of Terri Schiavo has raised passions not seen since five years ago. Then another bitterly divided family argued in Florida courts over someone who couldn’t speak on his own behalf: Elian Gonzalez.

New York Times (free registration required) JOHN LELAND

N the parade of faces talking about Terri Schiavo last week, two notable authorities were missing: Aristotle and Descartes. Yet their legacy was there.

Beneath the political maneuvering and legal wrangling, the case re-enacted a clash of ideals that has run through the history of Western thought. And in a way, it’s the essential question that has been asked by philosophers since the dawn of human civilization. Is every human life precious, no matter how disabled? Or do human beings have the right to self-determination and to decide when life has value?

“The clash is about how we understand the human person,” said Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a conservative policy group.

WorldNetDaily.com

Major media organizations paint the pitched battle over the life of Terri Schiavo as a clear- cut debate between pro-life and right-to-die advocates, bankrolled by big money activist organizations on both sides. But the case of the 41-year-old brain-injured Florida woman is anything but clear cut.

The little-publicized nuances of her 15-year saga often get lost amid the smoldering, post-election political warfare reignited by the intervention of Congress on behalf of Terri. But as President Bush pointed out in a statement on Terri Schiavo, “there are serious questions and substantial doubts” in her case.

Chief among these doubts is whether the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube on March 18, which amounts to slow death by dehydration and starvation, reflects her wishes. There is no written directive from Terri Schiavo on the matter.

Chicago Sun Times March 23, 2005 BY JOHN O’SULLIVAN

In November 1940, just one month before his assignment was due to end and 13 months before Hitler declared
war on the United States, William L. Shirer, an American correspondent in Berlin, began to uncover disquieting evidence of one aspect of the Nazi government’s then-unknown crimes against humanity. Oddly worded death notices began to appear in German provincial newspapers.

Shirer already suspected that the Nazis were contemplating a policy of the euthanasia of the mentally ill and incapacitated. He looked into the matter further. Shirer concluded that the Nazis were murdering the mentally ill.

It was a secretive and shameful business. Whatever Nazi theory held about the unfit, the Nazis feared the German people would resist the murder of innocent people with mental illnesses. Even in a society hardened by war and brutalized by Nazi propaganda, they took refuge in euphemisms. The official Nazi form letter sent to relatives included this sentence: “In view of the nature of his serious, incurable ailment, his death, which saved him from a lifelong institutional sojourn, is to be regarded merely as a release.”

ABC News

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. Mar 26, 2005 — After another round of losses in the courts, Terri Schiavo’s parents kept watch over their dying daughter Saturday, seeking permission to give her Easter communion as their attorneys acknowledged the fight to reconnect the brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube was nearing an end.

jacksonsun.com BILL POOVEY, The Associated Press Mar 26 2005

CHATTANOOGA – Eight years after a gunshot left him brain damaged and paralyzed, policeman Gary Dockery suddenly spoke and recognized his family.

”There is nothing in the world I would give for that,” said Dockery’s oldest son, Shane. ”I prayed for eight years that he would just speak to me somehow.”

The spectacle of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo, with President Bush and Congress intervening and parents at odds with her husband, has stirred memories of similar but less public duress for Dockery’s oldest son. He’s seen similarities between his father’s condition and the widely aired videotapes of Schiavo.

”She (Schiavo) is almost identical to what my dad was, how she is able to look around and smile here and there,” Dockery’s son said.

QUESTION: In general, how should an Orthodox Christian view the current situation with Terry Schiavo? I guess one of the issues is that of extraordinary means. Does the Church have a position on extraordinary means? I presume it does but then what are extraordinary means? Does the Church consider a feeding tube extraordinary means?

Another related question would be: How does the Orthodox Church view the matter of a person’s wishes in the event they ended up in a vegetative state? In other words, does anyone have the moral right to deny themselves food, water, etc. If they enter a vegetative state or would that be considered suicide.
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Patrick Buchanan

Schiavo continues the process of dying by starvation and dehydration, a method of capital punishment most would consider criminal if done to a pet.

This was the method used at Auschwitz to murder Father Maximilian Kolbe, the priest who volunteered to take the place of a Polish father of a large family, who was one of 10 the camp commandant had selected for execution in reprisal for the escape of a prisoner.

Thomas Sowell

Liberals have repeatedly used the talking point of how many judges have heard the case of Terri Schiavo. But that is as misleading as most of the rest of what they and the mainstream media have been saying.