518 Just a bagel and cream cheese
Two young 30-something married women (big rings, left hand) sat down near me at the coffee shop Wednesday morning. I watched them slice their bagels, open the plastic containers of cream cheese, spread the nutritious calcium and protein onto the wheat product and open bottles of fruit juice. Not bad nutrition--although more calories than two donuts.
They were eating, not dying, unless you think negatively that we are all using up our time here on earth. Terri Schiavo is a young married woman who uses a tube for her nutrition and fluids. She can't experience the texture and flavor of dairy and wheat products, but she can get the same nutrition. Terri is eating; not dying.
To withhold a feeding tube from a dying person may be an act of kindness because you aren't prolonging the death process. To withhold nutrition from someone who isn't dying is cruel, and a painful murder. Terri's husband wants to legally murder her by pulling out the tube.
If the husbands of the women I saw at Panera's came into the shop and grabbed away their food and locked them in a closet for 10 days, I suppose they might die. The husbands would go to jail, I hope. And what would those of us sitting around enjoying our coffee and bagels do?
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The Oct. 9 World Magazine Online has an up to date summary of the case.
http://www.worldmag.com/displayarticle.cfm?id=9730
"Schindler [her parents] attorney David Gibbs planned to argue in a lower court on Sept. 30 that removing Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube would violate her religious beliefs. Before sustaining brain damage, Ms. Schiavo was a practicing Catholic, according to affidavits filed by friends, priests, and family members. In March 2004, Pope John Paul II, addressing an international conference on life-sustaining treatments and bioethics, said, "The administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act . . . and as such [is] morally obligatory." He added that the withdrawal of a feeding tube as the only means of preserving a patient's life "is a serious violation of the law of God." "
There is no need to starve anyone to death period. To keep informed on Michael Schiavo's diabolic drive to murder the wife he abandoned years ago, visit CURE's blog, Life Matters!.
And thanks for caring!
Earl E. Appleby, Jr.
Director, Citizens United Resisting Euthanasia (CURE)
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