We have received a boat load of letters on the court ordered execution by starvation of Terri Schindler-Schiavo which was ended when Governor Jeb Bush ordered her feeding tubes reinserted. The following is a sample negative letter with my response.
Dear Vision Forum
I don’t understand what you are saying that Terri needs to stay here on earth for 10 years in a vegetable state. She told her husband she didn’t want this. Just because she didn’t tell her parents shouldn’t matter. She is no good to anyone right now. She can’t tell her husband & parents she loves them. She can’t worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why can’t her parents let her go to be with the Creator? They will see her again in the time to come. I just can’t see why they are letting her hurt this way. It is more abusive and cruel than letting her go. I don’t like the idea of removing the feeding tube. But trying to keep her alive because she didn’t tell them her choice. Do they really think that her husband is that cruel that he wants to kill her? I think he just wants her to be in peace and pain free. And she isn’t getting that right now. Shana
Dear Shana:
Thank you for your pointed letter. The following comments are offered in a spirit of Christian charity, but are equally pointed. In my view, your comment that Terri “is no good to anyone right now,” is ignorant, cruel and misguided. It is ignorant because it does not show a respect for the family who loves Terri, interacts with her, gives her love and receives love back from her through smiles, limited responses and her very presence. It is cruel, because it pronounces judgment on her worth as a human being based on her current limitations. In effect, your statement coincides with the sentiments of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger who declared that women like Terri are little more than “human waste.” Finally, it is misguided because it is based on your own private ethic rather than biblical reasoning. God’s Word alone sets the standard for when we may take the life of another. Starving a spouse to death because she is incapacitated is murder. God will take her when He wants to take her without her husband denying her food and water. What you propose is murder. In my view, we should not blow her brains out with a gun, poison her, electrocute her, or starve her to death. She is guilty of no crime except being inconvenient to her adulterous husband and expensive to the system.
As to her ability to worship God, speak to her parents or tell another person she loves them, you have described exactly the state of a “fetus” (i.e. baby) in the womb, a newborn, and an infant up to the six month of life. Such are completely dependent and highly limited in their interactive abilities. Are their lives also meaningless? Do they lack value? In point of fact, however, children, even unborn babies can respond to the holy spirit (as with John the Baptist responding to Christ in the womb). How can we know what God is doing with them or what they are fully receiving? How can we know what God is doing with Terri? It is interesting to note that in the Bible God required all babies and nursing infants to be present for worship and the reading of the word of God, even though they could not understand words or speak. By the way, what happens if it is God’s will for Terri to come out of this state of mental limitations next year, or in ten years? What if science finds a cure? But does any of these possibilities really matter? She is alive today and thriving physically, just not mentally, as far as we can ascertain.
Concerning her husband, the following reports have surfaced: (1) He is an adulterer who has had one child out of wedlock and is about to have a second through his mistress; (2) Evidence has surfaced that Terri’s so-called “coma” may have been violence induced. The family believes that Terri’s husband assaulted her and wants her dead and cremated to avoid being held accountable; (3) For many years Terri was fed out of a spoon. She was able to swallow on her own. At that time she received physical therapy and full-time attention from skilled nurses as part of a rehabilitation program for her. Her husband chose to discontinue the therapy and move her to a much cheaper hospice system where she has languished tethered to a feeding tube;(4) As of this week, the husband has denied TerriÂ’s parents access to visit Terri which means no one who loves her is allowed to be near her; (5) Terri’s husband only called for her execution by starvation after learning of his right to a medical trust fund upon her demise.
Thank you for considering this “food for thought.” I realize these are emotionally charged issues, which is my argument for forsaking the thinking of the world, and adopting careful biblical reasoning.
God Bless Terri,
Doug Phillips