Five years since the court-ordered murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo, I can still see the vase of flowers next to her bedside. The vase was filled with water, keeping the beautiful blooms resplendent. Terri had gone 13 days without water or food. She was literally withering before our eyes in the hours before her death. Her dying was not a peaceful and gentle process. In all my years as a priest, I had never seen anything like this. Her face showed emotions of terror combined with sadness. She died in a Florida hospice on March 31, five years ago.
Wednesday is Terri’s Day, a day when congregations and people of faith all over the country remember this woman whose life was cut short by the culture of death. On that day at 5pm, I will be the celebrant and homilist of the National Mass for Terri at Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla. We will pray with Terri’s family for all those in situations like hers.
Five years after Terri’s murder, the world has become an even more dangerous and cynical place.
Terri died on Easter Thursday. Liturgically, the Church considers the time from the Easter Vigil through the Sunday after Easter as one “Easter Day.” Terri suffered as the Church meditated on the sufferings of Christ, and she died as the Church celebrated his resurrection. Her anniversary this year takes place within Holy Week. We are assured that Terri shared in Jesus’ victory over death, and that should bring us comfort. But to look around us and see how strong the culture of death has become should send us all to our knees in prayer — and out to the streets in action.
Terri’s life and terrible death have apparently become, for some, a laughing matter. Anyone who saw Fox Television’s “The Family Guy” was asked to find humor in Terri’s situation. “What an ugly little bugger,” went the lyrics to a song. “Maybe we should just unplug her.” Besides being grotesque, the vile cartoon was built on fiction, not fact, and helped to perpetuate the lie that allowed so many people to accept Terri’s death as a good thing.
Doctors in “Family Guy” introduce us to all the machines that were supposed to be keeping Terri alive. But Terri was not kept alive on machines, and I didn’t see any of those machines in her room. She had a simple feeding tube inserted at mealtimes to supply nutrition and water. She was sustained by the very things that keep you and me alive: food and water. And love. Terri was surrounded by the love of her parents, Bob and Mary, and of her brother and sister, Bobby Schindler and Suzanne Vitadamo.
Terri responded to me and others around her. She smiled and laughed when her father kissed her and his mustache tickled her face. When her mother asked her a question, I heard her trying to say something. She was not able to speak words, but she returned her mom’s kiss.
When I told her I wanted to pray with her and give her a blessing, she closed her eyes and, at the end of the prayer, opened them again. She was not a “vegetable.” She was a living person who was being starved to death. This was murder.
After Terri’s death, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed that people like Terri, and those who are much worse off — including those who are not expected to recover — are not to be deprived of food and water. But our laws governing these matters today are devoid of humanity and of the basic sense of justice that this norm embodies. That’s why each and every one of us has to accept responsibility for what happened to Terri, and work to ensure it does not happen again.
Some people thought that the problem in Terri’s case was that she had never explicitly written down how she would want to be treated if she became unable to speak for herself, and thus it was up to the legal system to make the determination. Proponents of the “living will” sprang into action to make sure everyone signed one. But not many people realize that the whole concept of the living will was initiated by the euthanasia movement.
The problem today is not that one might be given unwanted treatments, but that one might be refused wanted treatments and even basic care. It makes much more sense to sign a “Will to Live,” which was designed by the National Right to Life Committee and allows people to appoint a proxy who will advocate for morally appropriate care.
If Terri had had the opportunity to sign a Will to Live, she might still be smiling and laughing with her mother, brother and sister, and she would have mourned the loss of her father last year. You can find a Will to Live here.
We can protect ourselves and our loved ones with a Will to Live, but we will only be successful in extending this protection to everyone if we fight the culture of death in the political arena. Every person devoted to the cause of life must become involved: Register to vote and make sure your family and friends are registered; learn the pro-life or pro-death positions of every candidate, and spread the word. Vote in every primary and, come November, when three dozen senators and every member of the House of Representatives are up for re-election, make your feelings known in the voting booth.
The fifth anniversary of Terri’s death coincides with two other milestone anniversaries: It’s been 10 years since the world lost one of its most powerful defenders of life, Cardinal John J. O’Connor, and 15 years since Pope John Paul II published his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, which spoke of the “sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end” and affirmed “the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree.”
Terri’s rights were not respected, which is why Priests for Life and Terri’s family established “Terri’s Day” two years ago. Our aim is to promote education, prayer and activism to counter discrimination against the disabled.
I urge all readers of NCRegister.com, along with churches, schools and pro-life organizations, to observe this day. Terri’s senseless and cruel death can transform all of us into champions of life.
Father Frank Pavone is national director of Priests for Life.
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I will be praying for the defeat of the culture of death that allowed this murder to happen.
What you write here goes against all the medical evidence.
“If Terri had had the opportunity to sign a Will to Live, she might still be smiling and laughing with her mother, brother and sister, and she would have mourned the loss of her father last year.”
That’s just wrong, so wrong.
“Terri Schiavo suffered severe, irreversible brain damage that left that organ discolored and scarred, shriveled to half its normal size, and damaged in nearly all its regions, including the one responsible for vision, according to an autopsy report released yesterday.
“House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) said Schiavo “talks and she laughs and she expresses happiness and discomfort.” He said she was unable to speak because “she’s not been afforded any speech therapy—none!”
DeLay was delusional. I would NEVER want my child existing like this for years. That’s just plain cruel. But all you can think of is your ideology.
Father, What you wrote triggered a statistic I heard on television the other day about 14,000 children dying each day around the world in the same manner Terri. This is the culture of death that is being unseen and this is a major spiritual influence also unseen that contributes to the decision to abort.
You said: “If Terri had had the opportunity to sign a Will to Live, she might still be smiling and laughing with her mother, brother and sister, and she would have mourned the loss of her father last year.” MY RESPONSE: Thank you for caring, but if the various judges would not obey the law (illegally placing a non-terminal person in a hospice; denying feeding tubes -marginally legal, ND FOOD & WATER, illegal per 825.102,Fla.Stats., refusing to compel deposition of Michael Schiavo; Illegally interfered with a criminal investigation by obstructing justice & preventing subpoena appearances, etc.), then why do you think they would obey a ‘Living Will’?? ~~ You said: “You can find a Will to Live here” MY RESPOMSE: You can find a request for a federal indictment and charges HERE: http://GordonWayneWatts.com or http://GordonWatts.com—I AM Gordon Watts, and I approve this message. (PS: I almost won my case in court to ‘Save Terri’, so it’s safe to assume that I’m on your side with my pro-life brothers, sisters.)
Father, pay no attention to negative nancies like Bea. They need our prayers.
Bea, you said: “I would NEVER want my child existing like this for years. That’s just plain cruel. But all you can think of is your ideology.”
Yes it is an ideology. Just as yours is. Labeling an idea an “ideology” is not only redundant, but says nothing of its truth or falsity. Whether you would or would not want your child to “live that way” only says something about you and your “ideology” (that some life is not worth living…really? Your own child?). Of course no one would want to live like Terri. But again, that says NOTHING about whether she should or should not have been murdered.
BTW, to speak of it as “murder” is not rhetoric but clarity. Murder can be defined as doing something to intentionally cause the death of an innocent human being. That is exactly what happened to Terri. Terri didn’t die from an illness or pathology, but starved to death as a result of being denied food and water. Murder.
This woman would never have survived her injury without artificial means in the first place. Doctors hooked her up on tubes in an attempt to save her life, but what kind of life was that? It’s surprising there is such anger among those who have your ideology. Isn’t going home to God her reward?
How is it murder that they simply stopped forcing her body to function (barely) when it wasn’t able to function on its own. If this accident had happened in a place where she wasn’t able to get this invasive medical treatment in the first place, she would have passed away long ago.
I think you are lying. There is no evidence that she was responsive or aware of her surroundings. The autopsy showed that her brain was liquified and that she was blind. This should have been an issue between her husband and her doctors, not a bunch of prolifers who wanted to exploit her for their own political agenda. Shame on you for misleading your followers.
We have the medical technology that would allow us to keep the body of a person alive for years after that person has left their body. Because we can, should we?
I am perplexed by your morals. What you seem to suggest, that we should have kept someone’s body alive for decades after they have left….I don’t think of that as proper morality at all.
Terri’s body was allowed to die. Her soul had left long before.
And is it intellectually honest to use a photo here of the young and vibrant Terri, when she was sadly no longer remotely anything like that?
The Hypocratic oath used to be “first do no harm”. It has been corrupted by this culture to be “if in doubt, kill it”.
DIANE said: “How is it murder that they simply stopped forcing her body to function (barely) when it wasn’t able to function on its own.”
@ DIANE – MANY people can’t function ‘on their own’ but rather need medications, insulin, casts on broken arms or legs, etc., but, here, you are saying that THEY should be killed too -since they, too, can’t function ‘on their own.’ Is that right?
SALLY claims: “I think you are lying. There is no evidence that she was responsive or aware of her surroundings.”
@ SALLY – I think you are lying. Observe:
* http://www.BlogsForTerri.com/video/ConversationWithTerri.wmv
* http://GordonWayneWatts.com/ConversationWithTerri.wmv
* http://GordonWatts.com/ConversationWithTerri.wmv
SALLY thinks: “The autopsy showed that her brain was liquified and that she was blind.”
@ SALLY: You trust the doctors? Doctors ALSO said that Kate Adamson AND MANY OTHERS were ‘pvs’ -and were WRONG:
KATE: http://www.KatesJourney.com
MANY OTHERS: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&q=pvs+misdiagnosis&aq=f&aqi;=&aql;=&oq;=&gs;_rfai=
STILL OTHERS: http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=At5Fhc.Nb6bL_JqrOxFn6t6bvZx4?p=pvs+misdiagnosis&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-830
KURT said: “We have the medical technology that would allow us to keep the body of a person alive for years after that person has left their body.”
@ KURT – YOU say – however, only GOD knows if the soul left a body. Doctors are OFTEN wrong about the diagnoses of PVS -as Kate Adamson and many others demonstrate; what makes you think you would be any smarter than a boatload of medical doctors (who, by the way, demonstrate their repeated failures)? .. with all dues respect .. NOT.
BEA asks: “And is it intellectually honest to use a photo here of the young and vibrant Terri, when she was sadly no longer remotely anything like that?”
@ BEA – Incorrect: They did not solely use only this single pic; look again at the very recent video linked above. THAT video refutes and proves false the many claims that Terri was flat motionless dead and hooked up to a bunch of machines; she was hooked up to ONE feeding tube -which was probably used for convenience -as numerous reports had her able to eat light, mushy foods the whole time along.
JON observes: “The Hypocratic oath used to be “first do no harm”. It has been corrupted by this culture to be “if in doubt, kill it”.”
@ JON – Correct. For the sake of money – let’s save a few dollars -for the sake of convenience -she’s too much trouble, - For the sake of GOD – stop it already!! Visit GordonWAYNEWatts.com or GORDONWatts.com and see the request for indictment, where I have identified numerous obstruction and other felony charges that are committed in this case -as front page news. Maybe the Grand Jury won’t return an indictment, but it certainly is well within its legal rights to. Simply put: Just because they are judges, they think they can be exempted from breaking the laws I outline in my investigation – but one last thing: I ask you dear reader: What if you committed these acts (e.g., refused a congressional subpoena, obstructed justice by interfering with a deposition order, or committed a ‘Kevorkian’ assisted suicide (or, if it were not her wishes, then a euthanasia),—or broke the law outlined in 825.102(3), which makes it a class II felony to deny food and water -REGARDLESS of a person’s wishes? And the person died? Would you be able to do any of these things 9let alone all of them -like these judges, justices, & other state workers) -and escape big jail time? I think not -judges get special treatment -they are ‘above the law.’ LOL
From the home office in Lakeland, Florida - I am Gordon Watts, and I approve this message.
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