High Noon In U.S.: If Schiavo Is Allowed to Die, It Will Be to Our Everlasting Shame
It's high noon in America when it comes to that disabled Florida woman whose feeding tubes could be removed as early as this week and it is beyond comprehension that a nation could sit back and watch the slow, painful death of a woman who can talk, who is aware, who expresses laughter, who has swallowed on her own, who expresses fear, whose parents love her.
This is not a woman who wants to die; this is a woman who, against all odds, has battled for 14 years now to live — and who has been mysteriously prone to utter the words, "Help me."
It is a woman who prays when a priest is there, who watches out the window for her mother, who some believe could become a functioning human being, could even speak whole sentences, with proper therapy — which, apparently, she has not received for years.
Never has it been truer that all it takes for evil to triumph is for the good to do nothing.
We're going to do nothing as the torment of her parents reaches an excruciating and unimaginable climax?
We're going to let them pull the plug on her?
If this happens we can say that the home of the brave is anything but the home of the brave and that the brave new world is really just a world of cowardice.
Terri Schiavo cannot be allowed to die — period. If she does, so does a big chunk of the soul of America.
Where are we, U.S. Attorney? Where are we, George Bush? And Governor Jeb: you've done some great things. Now we need you to seriously review whether judicial authorities have ruled competently.
For years, her husband Michael has fought tooth and nail to end her life. Her parents have fought just as hard to save her. The reaction of local authorities — especially the judge in the case — borders on the incomprehensible.
This matter must be taken out of their hands.
It has been a twilight zone that begs for federal intervention.
Those are strong words, but consider that the judge has never allowed certain key witnesses to testify in open court about Terri's awareness or their concerns that someone might be trying to secretly end her life or even to bring Terri in so everyone can see her.
Instead, she is hidden in a tiny room, under her husband's thumb, with virtually no stimulation, no therapy, just about no visitors...
Tragedy threatens to join absurdity in this case whereby we may soon watch slow-motion euthanasia.
The Pope himself has said that a person in Terri's condition should be kept alive. So has an association of Catholic medical doctors. So does anyone with decency.
There are what one former attorney, Pat Anderson, who heroically kept Terri alive for more than three years, calls "true mysteries."
To wit: in 1991, after Terri exhibited pain during physical therapy, a bone scan was done, and it indicated — after the records were finally revealed more than ten years later — that Terri had what the radiologist, Dr. Campbell Walker, described as a "history of trauma." In a report on nuclear imaging it was shown that there was "an extensive number of focal abnormal areas of nucleide accumulation of intense type" at the ribs, the thoracic vertebrae (at the throat), both sacroiliac joints, both knees, and both ankles. There were healed bone fractures in Terri's ribs, pelvis, spine, and ankle.
In common parlance, said the doctor (in an affidavit compiled by Anderson), at some point in the 12 to 18 months before the 1991 scan (which was 13 months after the incident), Terri's back had been broken.
Was it from the physical therapy? Was it "hypertrophic ossification"? Could Terri have been injured after her hospitalization? That's certainly possible. Right after the bone scan, the therapists "ratched down" Terri's therapy, according to Anderson, who unearthed the medical records. Perhaps they feared they had injured her.
Still, argues Anderson, there is cause for a probe. But it must be done immediately. Accent the word "probe": no one is making incriminations. But says Anderson, "if this was anyone but Terri Schiavo, investigators would have been all over this."
She calls the judge's actions in the Schiavo case "the rarest of all legal phenomena." Has he been objective, or an advocate for letting her die?
The concern is whether husband Michael should remain as Terri's chief and in fact sole "guardian." There are those who assert that he has a history of intimidation, that he became physical on one occasion with Terri's own brother, that Terri had been talking about divorcing him, that he threatened her sister Suzanne, that he frightened staff at a hospice that cared for Terri, and former girlfriends, and so forth.
We have no definitive evidence, at this point — which is why an investigation is urgent, an investigation that could clear his name or indicate deeper problems.
Here is a fact: Terri Marie Schiavo, age 26, of St. Petersburg, was found unconscious at the door of her bathroom around 5: 40 a.m. on February 25, 1990. Police responded after Michael had summoned paramedics. The actual course of events and how authorities were summoned is another issue too elaborate for discussion here. The salient point: police got to the residence at 12201 9th Street, apartment 2210, at 6:33 a.m. and because of the age of the victim and the circumstances — there on the floor — automatically routed the case to the homicide division, but took no further action when there were no overt signs of foul play.
According to George Kajtsa, a spokesman for the St. Petersburg police, "our job is to look for external signs of trauma" and there were none reported — no visible bruises or anything else that would lead to active police suspicion. Moreover, he told Spirit Daily, a cat-scan showed "no midline shift to the brain." Nor were there any official records of marital abuse, such as requests (as is common in abuse cases) for an injunction. A physical exam found no apparent trauma to the neck or head.
As for why it was routed to homicide, Kajtsa says that "homicide always investigates any unusual circumstances — because she was young and halfway out of the bathroom." But foul play was not suspected, he emphasizes. Meanwhile, Michael and his legal representation have steadfastly denied there had been violence of any sort; thus far, there is no proof otherwise.
But the police spokesman said that in his view the Schiavo woman should be allowed to die, and end her suffering — indicating possible police bias; and the judge — without admitting much of the testimony about her true condition into open court (saying it was not credible) — apparently holds the same view. "The judge has become an advocate for her death," argues Anderson.
Meanwhile, the state attorney has not entered the case as he should, and the U.S. attorney finds reasons to stay away from this "hot potato."
It is time for the federal government and Jeb Bush to take this bull by the horns — removing, as they can, anyone who has not conducted an objective and thorough investigation. Such an investigation must ensue before any further action concerning Terri's life support is taken.
It is increasingly baffling why such an investigation was not launched years ago by competent officials. One registered nurse, Carla Sauer Iyer, who was at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center, where Terri stayed from 1995 to 1997, was so perturbed over the situation (including Terri's reactions to her husband) that she called the police — and, she says, was fired from the facility after doing so. A manager at Palm Garden refused requests from Spirit Daily for information regarding the Schiavo case and hung up the phone.
Could it have been what some assert: that her collapse was simply a biochemical problem, a potassium imbalance?
Some say that is possible. Others, including famed medical examiner Michael Baden, call it unlikely. This is why we need an investigation.
Was there any abuse? Or was it just a series of unfortunate events? Has Michael been maligned, or are there yet more facts that need to surface?
We urge the U.S. government to urgently visit this perplexing situation, which thus far has been dominated, to be kind, by reluctant local officials. "It is a true mystery," says Anderson. "I've never had any litigation experience like this. The judge has become an advocate for her dying. I filed the affidavits in support of a motion, and he denied the motion and said the affidavits were not credible — without live witnesses. He was so extreme that he decided a witness's credibility without seeing the witness."
We're not here to incriminate; we're not even here to judge the judge, or the police, or anyone.
We're here to plead for the life of Terri.
We are certainly disturbed by how the case has been handled. Anderson mentions the Pope's recent view on such situations — which prohibits good Catholics (like her parents) from allowing feeding or water tubes to be removed.
"When the Pope said that, he did everything but put Terri's name it," says the lawyer — who recounted times during the case when she went to bed believing she had run out of legal options, only to awaken the next morning with a fresh idea on how to keep Terri alive. "I felt the Presence of the Holy Spirit many times in this case," she says. "When the Pope speaks up for you, you can't be wrong."
Let us hope and pray that the Holy Spirit intervenes in the coming days! Let us hope America stands up with the goodness it once had.
Terri can swallow; she has eaten Jello, according to another caretaker. She reacts in specific ways to specific people. Anderson's husband used to make her laugh. The presence of a priest causes her to focus intently. She is an aware, sentient human who must live and who must be given the type of therapy that one day might allow her to talk and perhaps recount just what has happened since and perhaps before February 25, 1990.
To see how you can help please go to Terri Schiavo's website.
If possible, demonstrate outside the facility where Terri will be starved. Alternatively, write, email, fax: Governor Jeb Bush, Office of the Governor, The Capitol, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001. Email [email protected] & [email protected] ), fax: 850.922.4292, Alternate 850.487.0801. Write President Bush demanding an Executive Order banning the starvation of Terri Schiavo. [email protected], fax c/o Andy Card, White House Chief of Staff: 202.456.1907.
For more information please see these other articles in Catholic Culture's Library:
1. Bishop Vasa's Statement on Terri Schiavo
2. Statement Concerning the Case of Theresa Schiavo
This item 6362 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
