[U.S. News]: By UWE SIEMON-NETTO, UPI Religious Affairs Editor WASHINGTON, March 21 : A curious coincidence seems to link two handicapped people during this Holy Week: In Rome, Pope John Paul II, crippled with disease, can barely bless pilgrims but is unable to speak to them; in Florida, Terri Schiavo, living in a persistent vegetative state, has become the center of a spirited international debate over the “culture of life” and the “culture of death.”
I would enjoy seeing Governor Bush defy Judge Greer’s order and take physical custody of Terri Schaivo. It would be a fitting and proper gesture of defiance of an evil judge. But, as a practical matter, the question is “for how long.” While I believe that the hospice and its security guards are committing a grave wrong by failing to defy the judge’s order, the fact is that a governor would have to occupy the facility “illegally” for an indefinite period of time if the gesture were to have any practical effect. I doubt very much that anyone in political office is prepared to take such a purely symbolic action.
On the other hand — hurrah for the people who defy Jduge Greer’s order to deny even water or an ice cube to Terri Schaivo. I am considering whether I should be among them tomorrow, and I don’t yet know my decision. I don’t believe that my action would be classic Martin Luther King style “civil disobedience,” as I don’t see any point to a purely symbolic gesture. So, if I do it, I would have to attempt to break through by force and violence and resist arrest to have any chance of effective action. I am still undecided. By the way, I speak as an attorney-at-law.