There are five things you must know about the crime which is currently taking place in Pinellas Park, Florida: First, an innocent woman is being cruelly tortured and murdered contrary to the law of God, the law of the land, and the law of the state. Second, those individuals most complicit in the torture and murder of Terri have diabolical agendas. Third, there is an immediately available, biblical, constitutional, and legal remedy. All that is required to save Terri is courage. Fourth, the unwillingness of some Christians leaders to embrace a biblical and historical view of the rule of law has rendered our efforts to save the life of Terri largely inaffective. Fifth, they are coming for you next. In this blog post, I examine the first point.

Terri Schiavo has committed no crime. She has never stood trial. Nevertheless, because of the efforts of an unrepentant, adulterous husband with financial interest in her death and a politically motivated probate judge, she is being executed in a cruel and unusual manner, and without due process of law, contrary to the United States and Florida constitutions.

When Michael Schiavo appeared on the television show Larry King Live, in an emotional appeal, he told viewers that death by dehydration was “dying with dignity.”

“It’s painless, and probably the most natural way to die,” Michael Schiavo told King. “It is a very easy way to die, probably the second best way to die, the first being an aneurysm.”

Many commentators have included the term ‘death with dignity’ in describing Terri’s impending death. Numerous newspaper editorials and letters to the editor have included references to ‘just letting her go.’ It is difficult to imagine any of the survivors of Japanese and Nazi death camps describing the death of their emaciated, dehydrated, and starving comrades as experiencing “death with dignity.” The truth is that a knife to the heart would have been less cruel and more dignified than the brutalitarian measures of Michael Schiavo and Mengelesque henchmen in the legal and medical community.

Strong words? Following are the medical effects of forced death by starvation and dehydration as described by a Massachusettes judge in the 1985 Brophy case:

• The mouth would dry out and become caked or coated with thick material.


• The lips would become parched and cracked.


• The tongue would swell, and might crack.


• The eyes would recede back into their orbits and the cheeks would become hollow.


• The lining of the nose might crack and cause the nose to bleed.


• The skin would hang loose on the body and become dry and scaly.


• The urine would become highly concentrated, leading to burning of the bladder.


• The lining of the stomach would dry out and the sufferer would experience dry heaves and vomiting.


• The body temperature would become very high.


• The brain cells would dry out, causing convulsions.


• The respiratory tract would dry out, and the thick secretions that would result could plug the lungs and cause death.


• At some point within five days to three weeks, the major organs, including the lungs, heart, and brain, would give out and the patient would die.

Dr. David Stevens of the Christian Medical Association explains what happens with starvation: “As dehydration begins, there is extreme thirst, dry mouth and thick saliva. The patient becomes dizzy, faint and unable to stand or sit; has severe cramping in the arms and legs as the sodium and potassium concentrations in the body goes up as fluids go down. In misery, the patient tries to cry but there are no tears. The patient experiences severe abdominal cramps, nausea and dry-heaving as the stomach and intestines dry out. By now the skin and lips are cracking and the tongue is swollen. The nose may bleed as the mucous membranes dry out and break down. The skin loses elasticity, thins and wrinkles. The hands and feet become cold as the remaining fluids in the circulatory system are shunted to the vital organs in an attempt to stay alive. The person stops urinating and has severe headaches as their brain shrinks from lack of fluids. The patient becomes anxious but then gets progressively more lethargic. Some patients have hallucinations and seizures as their body chemistry becomes even more imbalanced. This proceeds to coma before death occurs. The final event as the blood pressure becomes almost undetectable is a major heart arrhythmia that stops the heart from pumping.”

In his book, Wesley J. Smith describes the intense suffering imposed on those being starved to death. “Proponents of dehydration contend that deaths by dehydration are peaceful,” Smith wrote. Noting that, “the patients we are discussing are not terminally ill” and that those who are conscious can feel hunger and thirst, Smith quotes Dr. William Burke, a neurologist in St. Louis, who described the agonizing process.

“A conscious person would feel it (dehydration) just as you and I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water. Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death.”