Whether you are a judge, a member of the press reporting on this story, a family member or friend, a member of the medical community, an elected official sworn to protect a basic Constitutional Right to life, or just a compassionate concerned american, if you have taken the side of unplugging Terri’s feeding tube, you must ask yourself this question.
Great efforts have been undertaken to make this question more complex than it really is. It is very simple and I can prove it to any reasonable mind by asking two simple basic questions.
First, if you think you are supporting Terri’s "Right to die" of natural causes by supporting the removal of her feeding tube, once that tube is removed, shouldn’t you allow her the chance to fight for life on her own? In other words, if you are going to remove her artificial supply of food and water, why would you stand guard in her room to arrest anyone who tries to give her a drink or an ice cube? This isn’t just denying her "life support"; it is denying her any chance at all.
Second, if I came to your home and stood guard around you, denying you any form of nourishment or hydration, you too would eventually die, maybe faster than Terri. Would you have died of natural causes, or did I murder you?
What makes it okay to stand guards at Terri’s room blocking any effort to provide her with hydration or nourishment of any kind? and why would it be called murder if we did the same thing to anyone else?
No matter what you think of the people involved, what we are allowing to happen to Terri Schiavo is insane, immoral and un-american on this basis alone.
We put people in jail for denying food and water to their pets. We give convicted murderers and rapists, even captured terrorists three squares a day on our nickel. But we have guards standing at Terri’s bedside for the sole purpose of guaranteeing that Terri will die. Why?
With each passing moment, Terri’s future becomes more certain. Yet the first federal court in Florida asked to stop it, made her wait 24 hours without food and water just to say no. Then the federal appeals court in Georgia held her life in their hands for another 24 hours, again without food and water, just to say no.
But in each of these cases, they would try me for murder and convict me, if I helped you die of "natural causes" by denying you access to food and water.
It is a stretch to call food and water "life support" to begin with and we all know it. But it is insane to remove that so-called "life support" then stand a guard at her bed to deny her any form of nourishment or hydration. It’s worse than insane, its murder.
The terrorists at Guantanamo Bay are on easy street compared to Terri Schiavo..Why?
Justice is defined as, "The principle of moral rightness; equity; Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness". Have our courts delivered "moral rightness" to Terri?