Listen to Bob Schindler

From WTEV.com: "Also today, Schiavo's father asked protesters outside her hospice to halt their efforts to get people arrested -- or, as he put it, to make any more 'scenes.'"

Good advice.

Folks, let's not forget that we're Christians

From the website of kwxt.com, Channel 10:

"Emotions are running high as time runs out for the 41-year-old woman who has been in what most doctors agree is a persistent vegetative state since suffering a heart attack caused by a chemical imbalance 15 years ago.

"A North Carolina man is in jail in Asheville on charges he threatened Schiavo’s husband.

"The man was arrested in connection with an e-mail that placed a $250,000 bounty on Michael Schiavo’s head and offered a $50,000 bounty for the elimination of a judge who denied a request to intervene in the case."

It's pretty clear to me that this is not what the Lord requires of us.

The Garden

So many people who have written about the effort to save Terri have emphasized the hope that she will "recover." On the other side, those who want to terminate her life say that because she has no higher brain function, she is already dead. It is time to address this serious error.

Terri is a miracle--a living person who is without sin, and without the capacity to sin. For fifteen years, she has lived as sinless a life as an unborn baby. She has never angered. She has never cursed. She has never experienced an impure thought. She has never defied her father or her mother--and how beautifully and steadfastly have they honored their bond with her. She has served as a perfect example of sinless devotion.

Who among us, in prayer, has not been frustrated at our inability to shut out the world, to give ourselves to God in perfect concentration and devotion? Is not Terri's example a gift to us?

Some may say that to live in Terri's state is somehow less than human. This is wrong! It is the life our first father and mother, Adam and Eve, led in Eden before, through Eve's transgression, sin entered the world. Terri is living in that primordial perfect state.

We were created in the image of God, but we marred that image through the disobedience of Adam. Every child is conceived in the same perfection as our first parents, and our Savior, but takes on Adam's sin at birth--that's why even at the moment of birth, a baby's first act is to cry for her lost innocence. Through Terri, we have a living example of God's perfect image, uncontaminated by sin. It is not for Terri that we fight to restore life-giving nutrients and water; she will have eternal life with her heavenly Father when she leaves us. It is for the gift she gives to us by her blessed example of a sinless life on this earth.

Judge Not...

While we advocate for Terri's life and the lives of others who cannot speak for themselves, I think it is appropriate to refrain from making unproven accusations against Michael Schiavo. "Thou shalt not bear false witness" is just as much a commandment as "Thou shalt not kill."

Michelle Malkin Defends Texas Euthanasia Law

Michelle Malkin cites the Texas Futile Care Law under the heading, "THE LEFT'S BOGUS SCHIAVO MEME" (linking Tom Maguire's roundup of blog opinion). The key point both Malkin and Maguire miss (one cited by Wesley J. Smith in his book Forced Exit: the Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder): The termination of Sun Hudson marked the first time in U.S. history that a judge has ordered the removal of life support from a child against the wishes of a parent. Who gave the state the right to play executioner in loco parentis? The Texas legislature, with the blessing of National Right to Life, and the signature of Governor George W. Bush.

I don't know what has me more upset: that the pro-life movement would sign off on such a law, or that "conservatives" would fall over themselves to defend it. It is a shame that so many in the movement are willing to put public relations for a political party over permanent principles.

Is the Pro-Life Movement more Pro-Politics or Pro-Profits than Pro-Life?

In response to the death of Sun Hudson, Greg Wallace (of the excellent whatattitudeproblem.blogs.com) wrote us: "...I agree. I would also say that the situation with Terri has been coming to a boil for years and in finally on the front burner, for better or worse. It doesn't mean the pro-life community doesn't care; I think there just wasn't a chance for that awful tragedy in Texas to get the attention it deserves....What happened to Sun maybe overshadowed right now, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen and that doesn't mean the pro-life community doesn't care. I think there's just so much we can all handle effectively right now."

Our response to Greg:

"I'm sorry, I can't buy that.  Reps from NRTL and Texas
RTL actually helped to _draft_ this legislation, which
Wesley J. Smith has described as typical of the
current slippery slope to state-mandated
euthanasia--'the bioethics of Big Brother.'

"To make an all-out push on Terri while allowing Sun
and others to be executed, essentially for the crime
of non-payment of medical bills, IN THE NAME OF AND
UNDER THE SHELTERING LEGISLATIVE WING OF THE STATE OF
TEXAS, threatens to hold our movement up to the same
kind of ridicule that we faced when a parade of
Republican House speakers resigned because of adultery
in the wake of the Clinton impeachment.  I, for one,
don't want to go through that again."

Hypocrisy kills!

Right to LIfe co-wrote death law

The Texas law that allows hospitals to terminate life support against the wishes of family was actually co-authored by National Right to Life, according to the Houston Chronicle. Why should Spiro Nikolouzos not merit the same reverence as Terri Schiavo?

Terri vs. Sun

I find the Sun Hudson case a fascinating counterpoint to the Terri Schiavo case, and am at a loss to understand how the right-to-life organizations square their position on that case with their acquiescence in this. To me, the fact that National Right to Life co-authored the Texas Futile Care Act is front-page news. It takes the story from being about a "red state-blue state" divide to being one about pure, unmitigated doublethink on the part of the religious right.

Or am I missing something?

The Act that Killed Baby Hudson

The official title of the Texas "Futile Care Act" is the (Orwellian!) "Advance Directives Act." The text of the act is here.

Texas "Futile Care" Law -- Murder by Hypocrisy

Whose right to life?

In all the controversy over Terri Schiavo, the termination of little Sun Hudson has attracted almost no attention. The bottom line of the termination of poor little Sun's life seems to have been the cost of keeping him alive. This child, born with a terminal condition, was put to death against the wishes of his mother under the terms of the Texas "Futile Care Law." This act, which authorizes health care institutions to terminate life support for patients who have no chance of getting better, even against the wishes of their family, even if they are conscious, was written with the assistance of Texas Right to Life and signed by Governor George W. Bush!!!

It would be nice if the tremendous coalition of Christian activists and bloggers that has come together for Terri could turn their attention to this unconscionable act of state terror. Take a look at the story in the Houston Chronicle and Pirate Pundit's blog.