A Life That Matters (27 page)
“I don’t know that I could ever forgive,” Bob says. “I also pray that one day I’ll be able to. But I have too much anger at what’s happened. It would be helpful for me to see the people who murdered Terri exposed and put behind bars. Then I’d feel at least some justice was done, and maybe I could deal with Terri’s death better. But right now I believe it was judicial homicide and that these people should be punished for what they’ve done. They should be in jail. Until that happens, I don’t see myself in any way forgiving or forgetting. And I will spend every ounce of energy I have to see that they are exposed.
“We made a commitment to Terri that we would do everything within our power to get her rehabilitated and help her recover. We failed. Our new commitment is to people like Terri. We will do everything we can to protect them, and this time, God willing, we will not fail.”
I share Bob’s anger, of course, but I don’t hate Felos and I don’t hate Michael. Forgive them? No, I’m not there yet. I’m not built up with rage, but I’m not at peace, either. Every day I pray that God helps me a little more toward forgiving them. Hopefully, with the help of God, maybe someday I can.
Sometimes when I’m on television or speaking on the radio, I tell myself,
Don’t cry.
My tears are private. People say, “You don’t seem to have much emotion,” but no one knows what I go through when I have a quiet moment alone, or if I’m in church. That’s when I cry. I think about Terri and cry.
Every single morning when I wake up, I say good morning to her. Every single morning. After that, she’s never really out of my mind.
The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation has two rooms and
a bathroom. In the back room are our desks, our files, our computers, a coffeemaker, a refrigerator, a television set, and, in an alcove, a conference table and chairs. It looks like any office—we could be accountants or bookies.
The front room, though it, too, has desks and computers, is a kind of shrine to Terri. There is a picture of us being greeted by the pope in 2005, Defender of Life Awards, and two yellow construction helmets signed by members of the media after some of their television light stands had fallen on Bobby and Suzanne in front of the hospice on a windy night. But mostly there are artifacts I associate with Terri, among them a drawing of Terri embraced by Jesus; the front page of the
Tampa Tribune
announcing Terri’s death; a drawing of the
Pieta;
a poem titled “Why Did Terri Die?”; a quilt with a picture of an angel blessing two children in its center, surrounded by handwritten quotes from the Bible, one of them reading, “For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 30:17); a drawing by Terri of a dog and a butterfly; a superb painting of Terri herself; a painting of a cross festooned with flowers; a picture of Mother Teresa; several small statues, including one of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus; a particularly moving drawing of Christ.
I love that room. In the last days of Terri’s life, when reporters were hounding us outside the hospice, when it was literally unsafe to go outside our own apartment, when every news channel blared Terri’s name and red-faced pundits screamed at each other about euthanasia and the so-called right-to-die, when we were the focus of a million people and the subject of a million arguments, I remember thinking,
Terri’s lost. No one knows her. No one cares about her, only what she stands for. She’s not flesh and blood anymore. She’s an icon.
I felt lost, too, separated from Terri by a sea of humanity. When I visited her toward the end, there was always a policeman in the room. When I held her, even when she smiled back at me or seemed comforted by my presence, I still felt I’d lost her and she’d lost me.
But here in the front room of the foundation, surrounded by pictures and memories, I feel I’m close to her, that I’ve found her again. Terri. A normal girl from an ordinary family. Lost and found.
A Lesson for Us All
Terri’s tragic and needless death, and her life as a disabled woman, have forced us as a society to confront our prejudice against the disabled.
Are we going to love and care for our weak and vulnerable brothers and sisters? Are we willing to say to them, “You may be injured, weak, or dependent, but your life is a gift from God to all of us”? Are we willing to see the profoundly disabled as our teachers—instructing us how to love, a lesson by which every one of us will someday be judged?
Or are we going to throw them in the trash like damaged goods?
We are Terri’s family. It was natural for us to want to care for her. We loved her as a child, we loved her as an adult, and we loved her in her disability. Our love and commitment to her never changed. To us, she did not die when her brain was injured. She never left this world until she was torn from it by those who deemed her unworthy of life. We kept our promise to her: we fought for her life with all our strength.
Terri’s brutal death, a legally sanctioned killing of an innocent disabled person, revealed in the most glaring way the face of the so-called right-to-die agenda, an agenda that pervades the medical industry.
The diagnosis of persistent vegetative state was invented by proponents of euthanasia within the medical industry to dehumanize the severely brain-injured, making it easier to kill them. This medical diagnosis is now a legally recognized term.
1
Under Florida law, the definition of “persistent vegetative state” is a permanent and irreversible condition of unconsciousness in which there is (a) the absence of voluntary or cognitive behavior of any kind and (b) an inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment.
This definition means a death sentence for people with severe disabilities like Terri. There is clearly no other reason for the PVS diagnosis. Doctors and hospitals can use it to terminate a life—and even if the person is arguably
not
PVS, like Terri, there may be no way of counteracting it.
The Nazis had something called the T-4 program, devoted to eliminating all the disabled people of Germany. Hospitals and doctors were given the authority to kill those deemed “imperfect” or “undesirable.” Well, it’s happening here in America.
As Bobby says, “The term ‘vegetative state’ makes me furious. People don’t describe them as disabled anymore, but as vegetables. In fact, I read about a kid in college who dressed as a vegetable for Halloween and called herself Terri Schiavo. I think ‘vegetable’ is used purposely. It’s easier for people to rationalize taking a human life if she’s in a ‘vegetative state.’
“We fell into that trap ourselves. We had to argue that Terri wasn’t PVS—even though she didn’t fall into the PVS criteria—because only then would she be allowed to live. But why did Terri have to prove anything? She’s a human being.
“And even if they claim someone is PVS, does that mean she’s not allowed to practice her religion? Not allowed to have people she loves or who love her take care of her? Not allowed to eat and drink? Not allowed care?
“Michael claims that Terri’s death by starvation and dehydration was ‘peaceful and painless.’ His attorney agreed, and so did some doctors. Yet most doctors say just the opposite—that dying this way is agonizing—and we saw how horrible Terri’s death was. The fact is that doctors don’t know, and neither do attorneys.
“But Kate does.
“Like Terri, Kate Adamson had her feeding tube removed and went without food or water for a week. Pictures of Kate in this period showed a woman suffering terribly. But unlike Michael, Kate’s husband fought against Kate’s doctors, finally convincing them that his wife deserved life. Kate has since improved and now speaks out about her experience, what it’s like to go without food and water.
2
There’s no doubt that Terri suffered just as Kate did—and God have mercy on us as a society for allowing it to happen.
“Remember, most hospitals and many doctors
want you to die
. It’s convenient that way and much less expensive. Hospitals need the space, doctors need the time, and insurance companies want to hold on to their money. The profoundly disabled? Well, they’re a burden, less than human. They should be ‘mercifully’ put away.
“Yet there are thousands of people near death who have gotten better. And there have been thousands of people who’ve thought of committing suicide only to change their minds.”
Many people believe that a living will or some form of advanced health care directive is the answer to the tragedies in life such as Terri suffered. The secular media, which consistently wrote of Terri’s plight as an “end-of-life issue,” which it was not, advised everybody to run out to create living wills. However, living wills are increasingly unenforceable. “Futile care committees” in medical facilities across the country are overriding them every day.
Even so, a more effective route to pursue regarding your health care wishes is to grant a reliable person—preferably not a spouse or loved one, who might be too emotionally involved—a health care power of attorney. A formal “will to live” is espoused by the National Right to Life Committee and the National Euthanasia Task Force. We encourage you to contact our foundation to obtain more information.
The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation
The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation is fighting for the rights of the severely disabled. We’ve been contacted by parents and other family members who have brought us persons like Terri—in worse shape than Terri—and are horrified at what the courts are doing. They’re afraid because if they die, or are otherwise unable to care for their loved ones, judicial murder might loom.
We are dedicated:
• To advocate for persons in danger of being killed by euthanasia.
• To promote legislation that will protect the right to life and basic care of disabled and vulnerable persons. This will include efforts to reestablish food and hydration as ordinary care and not “medical treatment” as it is now defined by some in the medical and legal professions.
• To confront the culture of death in our society by establishing a grassroots volunteer network to help us speak out against the deliberate killing of the disabled or anyone deemed “unworthy” of life. This will include educational efforts to inform people about the dangers of “living wills” and the necessity for a reliable health care power of attorney to defend those in danger of not receiving the health care that is their right.
• To establish a sanctuary—a “safe haven”—where severely disabled persons, the brain-injured or those classified as PVS, can live, immersed in loving care, dignity, and safety. They would be afforded the best medicine, therapy, and comfort that modern technology has to offer, at no cost to them or their families.
• To advance the Gospel of Life in honor of the life and legacy of Terri Schindler Schiavo.
We pray that Terri’s foundation will save the life of other innocents. May our efforts help build a society that holds every life as sacred and worthy of our love and care. Terri’s great sacrifice was not in vain. She touched the lives of millions of people throughout the world. Truly, hers was a life that matters.
The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation
5562 Central Avenue, Suite 2
St. Petersburg, FL 33707-1711
Phone: (727) 490-7603
www.terrisfight.org
But when the Son of Man comes in His Glory, and all angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat;
I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink;
I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
Naked, and you clothed Me;
I was sick, and you visited Me;
I was in prison, and you came to Me.”
Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?
“And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
“When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?”
The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers and sisters of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”
Matthew 25:31–40
The Affidavits
Over the course of Terri’s case, numerous affidavits and statements were submitted to Judge Greer in opposition to his ruling to stop Terri’s feeding and hydration, a decision he claimed was based on valid medical evidence. He paid little or no attention to them.
When the videotapes showing Terri responding were aired by the media throughout the country, they attracted the attention of hundreds of physicians and caretakers many of whom contacted Terri’s attorneys with affidavits that disputed the court’s neurological findings and recommended therapy and additional testing. Even these failed to sway Judge Greer.
In addition, the media neglected to report the existence of the medical affidavits and the important role these documents played in influencing Congress and the Florida Legislature to act on Terri’s behalf.
Forty medical professionals submitted sworn testimony. Five full affidavits are included here. The rest can be found on Terri’s Web site.
DECLARATION OF RODNEY DUNAWAY, M.D.
I, Rodney Dunaway M.D., have personal knowledge of the facts stated in this declaration and, if called as a witness, I could and would testify competently thereto under oath. I declare as follows:
1. I am a Board Certified Neurologist. I trained at Walter Reed during the height of the Vietnam war. In the course of that experience, I saw literally hundreds of brain-injured young men. I was the Assistant Chief of Neurology at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio. I was Consultant in Neurology to the NASA Flight Surgeon during some of the Apollo missions. I entered private practice in Neurology in 1971. I was Chief of Neurology at Florida Hospital Orlando for many years. I have experience with cases of brain death and vegetative state, as has
every
neurologist in practice for many years.