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Surrounded by Cowardice in a Time for Heroism

The editorial statement on Terri Schiavo released by the New Pantagruel effectively sums up the right attitude towards this most important case.

Beginning March 18, 2005, Terri Schindler-Schiavo will be starved to death by order of the State of Florida. The gross injustices of the judicial decisions and the gross inequities of the actions of her husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, leading up to this point have been well documented and are beyond dispute.

It now appears that all legal recourse to save Terri’s life has failed. As Terri’s family and millions of people know, the State is wrong. There is a higher law. If last ditch efforts in the Florida Legislature and the United States Congress also fail, and the administration of Governor Jeb Bush fails in its duty to uphold the higher law, those closest to Terri—her family, friends, and members of their communities of care—are morally free to contemplate and take extra-legal action as they deem it necessary to save Terri’s life, up to and including forcible resistance to the State’s coercive and unjust implementation of Terri’s death by starvation. The Christian community and all people of good conscience, rather than accepting the State’s actions with the small consolation that “everything that could be done was done,” should acknowledge the true horizon of morally acceptable responses, and should actively encourage and support all such responses when taken by those with immediate responsibility for Terri’s care and wellbeing.

Here in St Andrews, there is an elderly lady named Mrs. Stevens who goes to Mass every day. During conversations after Mass one day with younger students, she said “It’s your generation that are going to have to be heroic.” Her generation did their part, and we are ready to take up that mantle, but in a sense it is the generation in between, the generation now in power, that has failed.

Where is the willingness to stand up to the courts and their ridiculous decrees? Is it not obvious that the State cannot justly starve to death a woman who, though brain-damaged, still laughs, smiles, and cries? Has Governor Bush really done everything he can to save her life? I suspect not (and those who have been lukewarm in her defense will pay the price).

Governor Bush: Damn the courts and damn the lawyers, send in the Florida National Guard and save that woman’s life!

Published at 3:57 am on Saturday 19 March 2005. Categories: Church Politics.
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