Like many I followed the developments in Florida with prayer and great interest .Like most (at least I HOPE most...) of America I was enormously relieved to see Gods answer to the prayers of so many when Gov. J.Bush and the Florida legislature intervened to allow this helpless woman to continue the life God gave her.

Your most recent letter has brought larger issues to bear that have complicated my own life considerably. I am employed as a registered nurse in an intensive care setting. This is essentially a medical I.C.U. with a lot of coronary care mixed in and, as we see “the sickest of the sick” we our faced with Mrs.Schindler-Schiavos situation on occasion.

I am very familiar with both sides of the issue that her husband and her family are struggling with including the patients right to refuse supportive care. There are complications in this case regarding the husbands motivation but quite honestly none of these situations is uncomplicated.There is more than enough guilt to go around,plenty of confusion due to the ambiguity that the diagnosis ‘persistent vegetative state’ brings. The confusion and guilt isn’t confined to the families either.Medical staff aren’t without their own struggles to wade through in these times.

So I think that your letter was timely in that you brought the bottom line into view.God has given life and He is the only one qualified to decide when it ends.

I went to a Catholic nursing school in Canada and the great advantage to that was that they had a priest teach us the medical ethics component. As you probably know the Catholic church has taken a strong stand on right to life issues and the theological,philosophical and scriptural support was rock solid. The tension was dense,the strain absolutely remarkable as the issues were raised regarding abortion,euthanasia and birth control.But that was fourteen years ago and the years in the field have unfortunately worn the edge from those unassailable arguments and I find myself, if not chiming in with the chorus of current medical “thought”, at least remaining silent and so effectively endorsing the call to allow withholding treatment.

Another situation that wasn’t directly addressed in your letter was attempted suicide.I hate to tell you this but in the hospitals I’ve worked in in Canada and the U.S.A. I frequently hear the cynical comments (and have made them myself...)that if these people want to die we should just let them or worse,tell them how to do it right the next time!! Interestingly,the state of medical ethics at this time is that if someone attempts suicide they have declared themselves incompetent and medical staff has the responsibility to make every effort to save them from the consequences of their actions.The inconsistency with Mrs.Schindler-Schavos situation is remarkable to me in that in her condition of profound incompetency, in fact helpless dependance the court orders suspension of the one, very minimal, inexpensive life support measure she had.

But let me return to the trouble you have caused me.

As I have said, I have at the very least allowed challenges to the sanctity of life go unanswered and the only reason that I or nursing ‘scholars’ offer for these contradictory attitudes has to do with being mentally exhausted from long hours,overtime and demanding patients and families( there are variations on the theme but that seems to be essentially the core of it)

When I read about young William Goforths troubles I confess to leaning somewhat towards the arguments put forth by the medical staff regarding his chances of a meaningful future...

Last night, as I read about this little man and about Mrs. Schiavo-Schindler I just buckled. What has happened to me?!!! A Christian father of four, fine children siding with eugenicists and euthanizers! I repent of the hardness of my heart, the pride in my knowledge, the cavalier treatment of those I have been entrusted by God in heaven to care for under whatever circumstances they come to me.

I tell you, I have been torn apart by the faithfulness of the Goforths, their parents, the saints in the body and most of all by God in heaven who chose to birth that fine young man “early”.I am shattered by the hand of God reaching out in Florida to save another utterly helpless child of God that I had so ‘wisely’ given up on. I am a fool before the mighty love of a completely sovereign God. And I am so grateful to God for using you to faithfully lay the truth out in the light of day.