Life vs. death

Our nation is riveted by the controversy surrounding the Terry Schiavo case. On the one hand her husband wants to bring about her death and the other her parents desperately want to keep her alive. Americans as usual seem to be split down the middle about where they stand on this issue. There is nothing in writing about what Terry would want. So our illustrious court system takes the word of her husband instead of her Mother, Father, and brother.



Terry has been in this condition for fifteen years. She is not on life support and was not in any pain whatsoever prior to removing her feeding tube. Her mother states that Terry is her reason for living. She visits her often and insists that Terry recognizes her and enjoys her visits. Some doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state; others say she is not. Her parents have assured the husband in writing that they are willing to pay for all of Terry’s expenses and care for her until she passes on from natural causes, but the husband who is living with someone else now and has two children through this relationship stubbornly insists that her feeding tube be removed which will slowly cause her to die from lack of water and food. I cannot understand his reasoning. If he does not want anything else to do with Terry he could get on with his life and simply turn her care over to the parents.



My question to any person, who is thinking about this issue and leaning toward removing the tube, is what “good” can possibly come from Terry’s death? She has been in this condition for fifteen years and by all accounts is not suffering, what “good” can come from killing her now?
On the other hand what harm is done if she is put to death? One look at the agony of her mother, father, and brother will answer that. There is no living will. There is only the word of the husband against the word of Terry’s natural family. Personally I think that since no absolute proof of Terry’s desire can be established she should be allowed to live. I think it is barbaric to deprive her of water and food until she dies. My mother was in a coma and was brain dead and was on life support. I asked my father to take her off life support and let her die peacefully. He refused, and I accepted his wishes, but she died on her own within a couple of days anyway. She could not breathe without a breathing machine and there was absolutely no hope of recovery with her brain waves dead flat. Had she been removed from life support, she would have died in minutes. That is a case of her already being dead and the technology of mankind keeping her body alive through a breathing machine. That is simply not the case with Terry who is slowly dying of thirst over a period of weeks.



I know in my heart that Jesus would not pull that tube. What nation lets someone die of thirst and starvation? One nation under God? Would God grant Terry Shiavo’s husband’s wish to let her die of thirst? Terry is not in that condition and just needs to be fed and given water in order to live an indefinite period of time. To me that is different and I have a hard time envisioning God blessing this nation for putting someone in Terry’s condition to this cruel death. We should pray that God forgive us as a nation.



Psalm 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose

God is the Lord,

The people He has chosen as

His own inheritance.





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