March 2006 Archives

Thanks to Dan Lacey.

Although some judge a book by its cover, many look at real-time sales and popularity as an indicator of public support. Consequently, Br. Paul O'Donnell, the Schindler's spiritual advisor, urges Schindler supporters to purchase their book. "It would make a statement that our society is against the killing of the disabled, is against euthanasia, if , by the grace of God, this could be a NY times best seller," he said. "It would make a profound statement."

Last night I had the privilege of speaking with WordNetDaily's Diana Lynne about her book, Terri's Story: The Court-Ordered Death of an American Woman. I have a lot to say about our conversation and the insight Lynne brings to the table but time doesn't permit a full article (today). However, on this anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death, I would like to provide a brief report to our readers with the hope that they will be motivated to obtain and read Terri's Story.

Lynne's research is exceptional and based upon both hard documentation and extensive interviews with Michael Schiavo, his family members and right-to-die activists as well as interviews with the Schindler family and the legal team that represented them. Lynne is a savvy reporter and an experienced news editor. She knows what questions to ask and presents information factually and in a manner that even her critics will appreciate.

Via Feministe, I've forcibly digested this article by a volunteer of New York City's Haven Coalition. Haven Coalition members house pregnant women who come to New York City seeking late-term abortions. The author, Lynn Harris (a professional writer who is married to a rabbi), convinces me over and over again that certain pro-choice people are simply blind to certain aspects of reality.

Lynn begins by noting,

"When she told me she was stepping out for a smoke, I was briefly, mildly shocked: I mean, this girl is 21 weeks pregnant. But just as quickly, I remembered: After tomorrow, she won't be."

Michael Schiavo has claimed that his wife, Terri, expressed a desire not to be kept alive by artificial means* should she ever be debilitated by an accident or illness. His brother and sister-in-law corroborated that assertion, which Judge George Greer accepted as "clear and convincing evidence" of Terri's wishes.

He continues to represent this assertion to everyone who will listen, claming that Terri wanted her feeding tube removed. But did she? Is there a resonable doubt in his statements?

Terri's biological relatives, co-workers, friends and fellow church members universally dispute the claim, noting that she was extremely upset when the family of Karen Ann Quinlan disconnected the respirator that had been keeping the comatose woman alive, with the help of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Last year at this time, ABC News reported that Terri Schiavo's death is "likely to be very serene." Michael Schiavo and his attorney George Felos have described it that way as well. However, yesterday, on the Pat Campbell show, Fr. Frank Pavone explained that Terri's time without food and water was anything but peaceful. He witnessed her suffering up until moments before her death. She was unsettled and her eyes darted back and forth he said.

Last year Bobby Schindler spoke passionately and with emotional charge, still carrying the pain and grief that followed the public dehydration of his sister and yet describing his hope and vision for the future:

Part I - Terri Schiavo's Life and Death

Part II - Terri Schiavo and the Culture of Death Movement

Part III - Legalized Killing: The PVS Diagnosis

Part IV - Terri Schiavo: Finding the Answers

Michael Schiavo has publicly stated that his goal in withholding treatment from his wife and removing her feeding tube (leading to death-by-starvation) is in accord with her wishes. He has testified that he loves his wife and is doing what she wanted. However, both legal records and Michael’s actions seem to tell a different story.

This the final post in a four part series containing the full-text of a speech given by Bobby Schindler to an audience in Phoenix, AZ sponsored by Arizona Right to Life. These details and much more can be read by simply ordering a copy A Life that Matters.

Part I - Terri Schiavo's Life and Death

Part II - Terri Schiavo and the Culture of Death Movement

Part III - Legalized Killing: The PVS Diagnosis

Part IV - Terri Schiavo: Finding the Answers

I get asked all the time what has sustained you and our family in all this? Has your faith helped you or been affected with your sisters situation.?

Personally, it wasn’t until the experience of my sister’s situation and what seemed like an endless roller coaster ride of emotions that I realized --- for most of my adult life -- how easily my faith could be shaken, failing to trust in God. Throughout different times in my life my faith was easily tested. As long as things were okay in my life, my relationship with God was okay, but in the time of testing, just as it says in the parable of the Sower, my faith essentially, “fell away”.

And when my sister’s trial began in January 2000, my relationship and faith in God truly was tested, and there is no doubt that my faith was tested and I didn’t respond very well at all. It all began when something happened that no one in family would have ever expected, a Catholic priest testified on behalf on Michael Schiavo stating that the Catholic Church was essentially ‘okay’ with removing my sister’s feeding tube so that she would starve to death.

As my family listened to this priest testify -- it astounded me that he never went to visit Terri nor did he speak to anyone in my family about my sister. I wondered if the priest even knew that Terri was a practicing Catholic who was an advocate for life, and would be completely against starving a human being to death.

Once again from the Kansas City Star so I am surely not expecting a reply, but I had to write them a Clone the Truth letter anyway:

Dear Reader's Representative,

I am writing to inform you of errors in terminology in Kit Wagar's piece "Stem-cell ballot issue challenge is rejected" as seen on www.Kansascity.com dated March 29, 2006.

Wagar writes, "They argued that the summary was deceptive because the initiative would protect laboratory techniques for cloning cells..." Actually the laboratory technique in question is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) which creates cloned embryos, not just cloned cells. A cloned embryo is a complete organism and a cell is defined as a subunit of an organism. It is from the week-old cloned embryo that the embryonic stem cells are extracted.

Wagar also writes, "Some voters might define a laboratory technique used to copy cells as human cloning." Once again, SCNT does not "copy cells" it creates cloned embryos.

Terri Schindler Schiavo Memorial Illustration, In Progress

Mary and Robert Schindler as well as Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo and Bobby Schindler officially launched the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation on March 30, 2006 at 11:00 am outside of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington DC. Speakers will include the Schindler family, Senator Sam Brownback and others.

The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, Inc., (TSSF) is a non-profit group dedicated to ensuring the rights of disabled, elderly and vulnerable citizens against care rationing, euthanasia and medical killing.

“Throughout the entire struggle to save Terri’s life and to this very day, the Schindler family has been a profound example of Christian familial love,” stated Stephen G. Peroutka, Esq., chairman of the National Pro-Life Action Center (NPLAC)—the uncompromising voice of pro-life America on Capitol Hill. “After the tragic loss of their daughter, no one would have blamed the Schindler family if they had just wanted to quietly recess into the shadows to mourn. Instead, they continue to be an inspiration to the world by continuing their work on behalf of the disabled and the infirmed, and we thank them for that.”

Orlando's best morning radio host is Pat Campbell, who continues to be a leading voice for life on 540WFLA. This morning, Michael Schiavo is scheduled to join Pat for an interview at 8:05am (EST). You can listen live by going to http://540wfla.com/streaming.html. After the show the interview will be available at http://www.540wfla.com/patcampbell.html.

Post your review of the program below.

A medical sting operation is responsible for the first jail sentences in India for doctors performing sexual determination tests on preborn children. The test is extensively used in male-dominated societies to eliminate (by abortion) unwanted girls. And, yes, the doctors who performed the gender tests also did the subsequent abortion.

Here is the story reported, respectively, by the Turkish Press and the India Gazette.

Yesterday, the Schinder family appeared on Scarborough Country to discuss their book, A Life that Matters, and the charitable relief efforts of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation. As usual, the group was asked to respond to numerous explosive allegations made by Michael Schiavo during his recent media appearances.

Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother stated,

"It doesn't matter what Michael says about our family. It doesn't change that fact of justify or rationalize what he did to my sister and I thinks its really just a distraction trying to take the focus [off] what he did to [my] sister which was brutally starving and dehydrating her to death. My sister was only being supported by ordinary food and water.

After discussing Terri's tombstone, which Michael used to memorialize himself with the words, "I kept my promise," Bobby stated,

Anybody who would starve a human being to death, we're really not surprised or shocked at anything he does or has done. This doesn't come as a surprise or shcok to us. And that's why were really just trying to move on. The issue with Michael is over and we're really trying to do what we can to protect those from what happened to Terri and be a voice for the disability community so something like this won't happen to other families.

Source: BlogsforTerri

When the dust settles and the legal battle for the lives of the unborn is won, there will be heroes and there will be villains.

The villains will be those who opposed legislation to save the unborn. They will be the ones who blocked efforts to stop abortion. They will be the ones who sat back & did nothing to stop abortion even though they knew that abortion is wrong and evil.

The heroes will be those who have done more than talk about how bad abortion is. They will be people like Duncan Hunter, sponsor of the "Right To Life" bill HR 552. They will be people like the 36 others who have co-signed this bill.

In 1876, the Oglala Sioux were responsible for massacring Gen. George Custer and his men at Little Bighorn, mutilating and scalping them as they went.

Stupid is...

Continue reading my column today, "Sioux tribe plans to scalp its own," on WorldNetDaily.com.

_______________

Link to article on South Dakota and Native American law: www.lifenews.com/state1532.html

Terri's death was never about Terri's supposed wish. Terri's death and the long struggle over it was about Michael having control, being allowed to "win" and getting what he thought was best. -- JivinJehoshaphat

... because their quality of life is poor. Where have we heard this before (hint)?

A Minnesota Woman's Quality of Life
By Joseph A. D'Agostino

British doctors want to kill children born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), even against the wishes of the babies' own parents. When these parents sought to obtain health care for their sick children, these doctors instead took them to court. They argue that SMA-afflicted babies have "no quality of life" and should be denied necessary medical care.

A Life that Matters is a must read for anyone who says they are pro-life.

These are the words of Br. Paul O’Donnell, a man who worked closely with the Schindler family during the dark days of their battle for the life of their daughter, Terri Schiavo.

The Schindler’s book has been released today, and according to O’Donnell, provides an inside view of the pain endured by the family as well as surprises and information that will provoke the reader to "cry” and to "hope”.

"It is a great tribute to Terri, her life and death,” O’Donnell revealed. "It is inspirational what the family set out to do and what they are currently doing. But it is heartbreaking. There are things revealed in the book that people simply didn’t know about.”

This the third post in a four part series containing the full-text of a speech given by Bobby Schindler to an audience in Phoenix, AZ sponsored by Arizona Right to Life. These details and much more can be read by simply ordering a copy A Life that Matters.

Part I - Terri Schiavo's Life and Death

Part II - Terri Schiavo and the Culture of Death Movement

Part III - Legalized Killing: The PVS Diagnosis

Part IV - Terri Schiavo: Finding the Answers

What the doctors in the pro-death health care industry needed to do was create a diagnosis that they could use to make it legal to kill patients with profound brain damage that were thought of by doctors to have a quality of life not worth caring for.

As I mentioned along with some evidence of a declaration by the patient, they also must be determined to be in a PVS condition [for their nutrition and hydration to be withheld].

I need to go back for moment to how the euthanasia movement evolved these past twenty years. What the doctors in the pro-death health care industry needed to do was create a diagnosis that they could use to make it legal to kill patients with profound brain damage that were thought of by doctors to have a quality of life not worth caring for. Thus, the PVS diagnosis was created, and because of its inherent subjectivity, it is a very dangerous diagnosis. But this is precisely what they intended in order to make it legal to kill.

I'mNotSorry.net | What to take seriously:

Today I was reading an article by ESPN.com columnist Patrick Hruby, a humorous treaty on what tired topics sports journalists should abandon. I was chuckling until I got to this sentence, concerning one of the topics that should be treated "as if it had been sucked into a black hole and is no longer subject to the standard rules of space and time":

Debate over the BCS (college football's Bowl Championship Series) championship game, which is no more tedious, ossified and less likely to change anyone's mind than debate over Roe v. Wade.

And my first thought was, "Did he honestly compare a freakin' college football game to a woman's right to choose?"

Bob and Mary Schindler appeared on Hannity and Colmes to talk about their fight for their daughter, Terri Schiavo, the book they wrote to honor her life (A Life that Matters) and their work on behalf of others.

The Schindlers answered charges, laid by Michael Schiavo, that their resentment of him and action to protect her life was about the money won in a malpractice lawsuit. Bob Schindler agreed that money was the catalyst that began the controversy. "He had committed to spend that money on her rehabilitation. But rather than do that he put her in a nursing home," he said.

"We lived with [Michael]...He said, 'don't forget mom, when we get the money she's going to Shanz Hospital and she's going to get extensive rehab," stated Mary Schindler.

They explained that the money won in the malpractice lawsuit for Terri's rehabilitation was instead spent on attorneys who ultimately succeeded in obtaining a court order to end Terri's life.

However, the Schindlers state that they are pressing forward. Bob Schindler revealed

After Terri passed away, we tried to move on with our lives and dedicated ourselves to the [Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation] and we feel we could do some good with the foundation. And all this other stuff has been stirred up since then and is perpetuating itself. We're not trying to do that.

We're focusing now on what we can do for other people.

Watch the video: click here

Important: if you haven't done so already, order the Schindler's book, A Life that Matters.

Our Pro-Life Blogger Interview is with Melanie Mills.

Melanie's Pro-Life project is closehopeclinic.com. As she says in her interview, "It has been called worse than Tiller's clinic in Kansas by leaders I know in the Pro-Life movement because of the volume of abortions, the late term abortions that take place there and the fact that after repeated attempts to have authorities investigate the actions there and close them, there has been a non-response."

She also volunteers at a local maturnity home, is an assistant for Stop the ACLU and writes articles for Renew America on Alan Keyes website.

Pro-Life Blogger Interviews is proud to present to you, Ms. Melanie Mills.

Emily & Annie over at the AfterAbortion blog have been following a "reality" TV show that is centered around abortion. Hey, sounds like it should be a lot of laughs, right?

30 Days is a reality TV show that takes someone with strong beliefs or a particular lifestyle, places them in the middle of a situation that conflicts with those beliefs or that lifestyle, and exploits films the ensuing conflicts. Previous episodes have marooned the show's producer out in the heartland trying to support his family on minimum-wage jobs, stuck a youth minister in the middle of SanFran's Castro neighborhood, and placed a Christian family in the midst of a Muslim community. I haven't watched it, but a review of the episode guide makes it seem like "30 Days" (and its producer, Morgan Spurlock) are specializing in edgy situations that confront various conservative beliefs with overblown political correctness the Truth Behind Their Ugly Prejudices.

(I'm eagerly awaiting the episode in which Spurlock arranges for one of the TheocracyWatch paranoids to live with a normal Christian family for thirty days....)

At last, a high government official in Europe got up the nerve to chastise the Dutch government for preparing to legalize infant euthanasia. The Dutch were outraged. Wesley Smith writes

...the prime minister of the Netherlands thinks that killing babies because they are born with terminal or seriously disabling conditions is not a scandal, but daring to point out accurately that German doctors did the same during World War II, is.

(...) German doctors did kill thousands of disabled babies, for which a few such physicians were hanged at Nuremberg. Dutch apologists know this, of course. But they claim that the Netherlands' infant euthanasia program is substantially different: Dutch doctors are motivated by compassion whereas the Germans' were motivated by the bigotry of racial hygiene. Of course it is the act of killing disabled and dying babies that is wrong, not the motivation. But even leaving that aside, the Dutch defense is not as persuasive as Prime Minister Balkenende would like to believe.

The Susan B. Anthony List is asking for help in getting the word out about "Real Women's Voices" - http://www.sba-sist.org/realwomensvoices/ - on April 26, 2006. It is a lobbying day in Washington, DC for pro-life women.

Click here to read more about this effort at ProLifeUnity.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Amber Dolle
March 27, 2006
540-903-9572 / ADolle@ALL.org

Planned Parenthood: Proponent of racism, protector of rapists, promoter of kiddie porn

WASHINGTON, D.C. — "Every day, Planned Parenthood undermines American values, and it does so with our tax money," said American Life League president Judie Brown. "Frankly, we're fed up. That's why we're beginning a new advertising campaign to educate Americans about what this organization does with our hard-earned dollars. When people find out the truth, we're convinced Planned Parenthood's tax funding will quickly dry up."

Disability activists marked the anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death and vowed to renew their resolve to continue the battle to promote meaningful safeguards for the thousands of disabled Americans who, like Terri Schiavo, have guardians making life-and-death decisions on their behalf. The dangers to people with disabilities did not begin with the publicized tragedy of Terri Schiavo and they did not end with her death.

In fact, there are indications that things have gotten worse during the year since Schiavo’s death. Activists point to the case of Haleigh Poutre, an 11-year-old girl in Massachusetts. After she was allegedly beaten by her adoptive mother and stepfather, the Department of Social Services sued to disconnect young Haleigh from her ventilator and feeding tube. Ironically, she was saved by a court challenge from her stepfather, who would have faced a murder charge had she been disconnected from life support. Within days of a court order “allowing” her to die with “dignity,” DSS reported that Haleigh Poutre showed signs of awareness and the ability to follow simple requests. She is now in a rehabilitation hospital. This case raises questions about doctors’ “rush to judgment” in declaring people with brain injury permanently unconscious, and about the state’s – through the courts and its agencies – eagerness to withhold treatment and end their lives.

Bloggers are invited to submit links to their best writing on Terri Schiavo's case and related issues. Dory has posted this weeks edition here.

LifeNews - The new book about the life and death of Terri Schiavo, written by her parents and brother and sister, hits the bookshelves on Tuesday. With a release date of just three days before Terri's ex-husband starved her to death in a court-approved euthanasia, “A Life That Matters" provides in inside look into the horror of a family watching someone they love slowly die before their eyes.

In an NBC exclusive, Matt Lauer interviewed Michael Schiavo about his upcoming book that Schiavo claims will settle a few scores. Prior to asking Schiavo questions about his wife's 1990 collapse, Lauer laid the following groundwork for the audience:

Terri Schiavo’s heart had stopped, apparently from a potassium imbalance doctors at the time suspected was caused by bulimia.

An emotional Michael Schiavo, appearing on MSNBC's Dateline, described his feelings about his new wife: ... I love her to death.

Ironically, it was his love for his first wife, Terri, that he claims motivated him to remove her feeding tube, ending her life via dehydration...

Through the trackbacks on the "What's Wrong With Infanticide?" post (which I mentioned earlier), I am led to Chez Diva's "Quiet Reflection":

I am afraid that my inner struggle with this issue will continue. I can't say that I want legalized abortion to cease to exist. I do not want other's to make choices for me or to dictate what I can or can not do with my body. Yet I can't quietly stand by and allow Pro-Choice groups to sugar-coat abortion. I see abortion as a necessary evil. I would never expect a child impregnated through an incestuous relationship to have to carry the baby to term. I would be morally conflicted to force a rape victim to carry her baby to term should she choose not to. I would be torn having to choose whether the baby dies or the mother dies in cases where the mother's life is in danger.

Those cases are very real cases in which abortion is an option. It may be a gut-wrenching decision that the mother has to make but she should have that option. She should also have all the facts as painful as those facts are. Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice groups lie to there members when they say it is simply about choice and a few cells being scraped out of the uterus. It isn't just a few cells, it's a life. The Pro-Choice argument "that it's not a life but a group of cells" boils down to the very last sentence in Ben's post, " The ultimate purpose of personhood analysis is to determine whom we can kill and still get a good night's sleep."

(As an aside, we pro-lifers should also have the courage to face the ugly truths about our position. Banning abortion will not end abortion with the wave of a magic wand, although it is a necessary and moral course of action. Women will still abort. Doctors, and even some misguided feminist fools, will still offer the tragic "kindness" of abortion. How will we respond to them?)

I won't exploit the Diva's introspection for political point-scoring ... but I will exploit a few of her commenters. At the time of this posting, the Diva's "quiet" reflection had 79 comments. Some of those comments are thoughtful & serious, but others are just ... disturbed.

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, and an eyewitness to Terri Schiavo’s final hours, released the following open letter to Michael Schiavo tonight. Fr. Pavone will read it to a worldwide audience on an internationally broadcast religious service on Sunday morning, March 26.

Dear Michael,

A year ago this week, I stood by the bedside of the woman you married and promised to love in good times and bad, in sickness and health. She was enduring a very bad time, because she hadn’t been given food or drink in nearly two weeks. And you were the one insisting that she continue to be deprived of food and water, right up to her death. I watched her face for hours on end, right up to moments before her last breath. Her death was not peaceful, nor was it beautiful. If you saw her too, and noticed what her eyes were doing, you know that to describe her last agony as peaceful is a lie.

Bloggers are invited to submit links to their best writing on Terri Schiavo's case and related issues. Dory has posted this weeks edition here.

As the release of his book approaches, Michel Schiavo and his wife Jodi have given their first network interview with NBC New’s Matt Lauer. Schiavo discusses the hydration/starvation death of his wife, Terri, and why he refused to give her care over to her family, the Schinders:

Schiavo: When you sit in a courtroom and you hear the father say, ‘I’ll cut her arms and lets off just to keep her alive.’ Why would I want ot put their daughter back in their care If he’s going to do that to her?

Lauer: Let’s make sure we understand that statement.

Schiavo: (interrupting)

Lauer: I think the statement was basically was, if she were to develop gangrene, and had to have limbs amputated, he would do that and would ok that in order to still have her alive

Schiavo: Right.

Lauer: That’s a little different than what you said.