Terri Schiavo: A Matter of Court Ordered Death

Regardless of our personal opinions on what we think of Terri's condition, what we think about brain damage, severe or otherwise, or what we think about the whole dying process, what is happening to Terri is court ordered, court sanctioned, murder.

Consider the facts, facts available for anyone deeming to look further than the major media's extremely pro-death bias, from their choice of what words to use in their headline regarding this situation ('Right-to-Die') to their posting of a USA-Gallup poll of 900+adults asked if Terri should have the tube reinserted or kept out-something like more than sixty percent said keep it out, the facts list is a long one, long ignored by the media, though as available to them as it is to my little blogging fingers. Heck, I don't even think what I wrote just there is even a sentence, but I am on a roll and do not want to stop writing to fix it.

The facts are that when Terri's heart stopped those many years ago, Michael filed a lawsuit against her doctor who he claimed misdiagnosed some imbalance in Terri, which caused her heart to stop. A jury agreed with him and awarded Michael and Terri over a million dollar settlement. I wonder how many of those adults asked in that poll are aware that Michael, in court testimony, claimed he would seek, with that award, awarded, by the way, for Terri's care, nothing but the best rehabilitation available. Once awarded the settlement, Michael almost immediately moved Terri to a hospice, you know, the place you go when you are supposed to die. I happen to know that what hospice is actually supposed to be for is those who are terminally ill. Severe brain damage is quite horrible to deal with in a loved one, but it is not a terminal illness. He has never, ever allowed her any rehabilitation at all. It is documented that he even told nurses and doctors to deny her anitbiotics for an infection, allowed her teeth to rot, as well as made it a horrible struggle for her family to even see her. Ask Michael how much time he spent with his wife, right from the beginning even, and you will find the man cared very little for her, and it showed.

After being awarded the settlement, Michael then, and only then, began this lawsuit to have her feeding tube removed, referring to some vague memory of a casual conversation in which Terri had supposedly said she would not want to be 'kept' alive. Why didn't he mention it during the lawsuit trial? It was not like the lawsuit happened overnight, it took some time. And, having had a brother on life support, I can tell you that a feeding tube is not 'life support' care. Some people have trouble swallowing and have feeding tubes, without which, they would of course, starve to death.

The judge should have thrown it out from the very beginning.

I question, and all of God-fearing, life and liberty loving human beings everywhere should as well, a judge that would repeatedly err on the side of death rather than life, especially in light of the readily available facts that I listed, though there are many more, testifying to Michael Schiavo not having his wife's best interests at heart at all, or at the very least, that the judge would have a reasonable doubt arise for himself, that would cause him to look a little closer at Mr. Schiavo's behavior as well as his motive. Nothing, never, nada, from this judge, nothing but constant and continual rulings against Terri's best interests and always in favor of Michael's best interest. Which has been for Terri to die.

Is Terri severely brain damaged? Yes, she is. Does that mean it should be okay for her husband to disconnect her feeding tube? No, it doesn't.

Whether we understand or can come to grips with horrifying situations such as these, we none of us should support the starvation death of someone because we don't think her life is worth living in the state she is in. Who knows the purposes of one human life? Do we have to fully understand it to deem it worthy of living?

The fact that our Constitution guarantees the 'right-to-life', so prominent in importance as to be one of the first things stated in the Document, is doubly tragic in that a judge, one who is sworn to uphold the Constitution and apply it to cases before him, should order Terri's death, the very person who he should have ordered protected from Michael's lawsuit.

It is a nightmare, that is what it is, and it is just another step on the slippery slope we have been on in America for many years now as we continue to devalue human life based on our own selfish desires.

So let us call this what it is, it is not a right to die issue, Terri didn't ask to die, Michael asked a judge for permission to end her life, and the judge said yes. It is a court-ordered murder.

God help us all.