Home > Perspective

Terri Schindler Schiavo = Legalized Murder.

by Conservativity Staff,
Originally Posted: 1/25/2005 1:15:03 PM

Terri Schindler Schiavo’s "husband" wants her dead.  He wants, in fact, to starve and dehydrate her to death, which is indeed one of the most cruel ways to end a person’s life.  He has fathered two children with another woman.  So, how long is his prison term for attempted murder?  Did he hire a fancy trial lawyer to defend him?  No.  In fact, courts throughout his home state of Florida, and now all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, are aiding and abetting this man in his quest to end his wife’s life.

Doctors (who are being paid by a rapidly-dwindling personal injury settlement) have determined that Mrs. Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state," notwithstanding video evidence clearly to the contrary, as well as the uncontroverted testimony of her father.  Terri responds to music, moving objects and people in the room.  Is she hooked up to tons of lifesaving equipment to try to keep her alive by extreme artifical means?  No.  All she needs is a feeding tube.  In fact, Mr. Schiavo will not allow the hospital or doctors to attempt swallowing therapy, which holds out the hope that even the feeding tube will be unnecessary.  Mr. Schiavo also will not divorce his wife so that her parents could handle her affairs.  Why?  Well, if she dies while married to him, her story is his property.  If he divorces her, the story belongs to Terri, and if she dies, to her parents.  Mr Schiavo persists in enforcing what he says are "her wishes."

"In fact, the only way we are supposed to know that Terri supposedly has a living will is that she made an unwitnessed statement to her husband..."

OK, so what does the document that Terri signed say?  Does she explicitly authorize the withholding of food and water?  Was her signature witnessed?  No.  In fact, the only way we are supposed to know that Terri supposedly has a living will is that she made an unwitnessed statement to her husband, whose hearsay testimony has been used by multiple courts to justify the imposition of death by torture on this poor woman.  This hearsay is taken as true, while the videotapes and her parent’s direct testimony of Terri’s consciousness is ignored or treated as false.  When the state executes a mass murderer, they at least administer a sedative before the drugs that stop the heart and lungs.  Mrs. Schiavo has apparently been sentenced to die a brutal and horrible death so that Mr. Schiavo can have a payday.

So who, besides this woman’s brave parents, cares?  Governor Bush of Florida personally intervened to create a law that protected Terri from this horrible fate.  The result?  Mr. Schiavo promptly caused the law to be challenged, and the extreme left wing courts of Florida promptly tossed the law.  The United States Supreme Court on January 24, 2005, refused to grant certiorari, meaning they refused to hear the case.

Now, the Florida courts have the ball, while appeals continue over Terri’s civil rights.  However, the issue is bleak for this innocent woman, who sits on a death row as an innocent about to be tortured to end her life.  Is this the United States of America?  Or is this ancient Rome, where people were fed to hungry lions and tigers for sport?  This case makes me think of the latter.  Go to www.terrisfight.org and see for yourself.  This woman is aware and conscious.

"What can we do to help Terri?  I honestly don’t know, but I intend to figure out how I can fight for this helpless person."

What can we do to help Terri?  I honestly don’t know, but I intend to figure out how I can fight for this helpless person.  This article is merely the opening salvo in my fight for Terri’s life.  While Conservativity generally supports the most minimal role of government in the lives of the people, the need to prevent murder is certainly among the critical functions of government.  It is one thing to disconnect a respirator.  It’s another to starve and dehydrate.  The former is the withdrawal of extreme measures.  The latter is an active effort to kill.

We need a uniform national living will law.  What I would suggest:

1. The living will must be in writing and signed by two witnesses, just like a Last Will and Testament.
2. The living will can only be used to prevent extreme measures to be used to save a life, i.e., hooking one up to machines to keep one alive.  It cannot be used to withhold food. palliative medicine or water, ever.
3. The living will cannot be enforced by a party who intends or is in a position to gain financially from the death of the person whose living will is to be enforced.
4. Upon a good faith objection be a family member, the police, medical personnel assigned to the case, social services or the public guardian, an attorney will be appointed by the court as a guardian to represent the person and determine what to do with the living will.

Terri, right now, has been denied an attorney to represent her interests.  Her parents apparently lack "standing" to argue for her life.  This situation is disgusting.  Please join us and go to Terri’s site at www.terrisfight.org and let’s fight to make it unlawful to torture sick people to death!