Terri's Gone
by Jody Brown, Allie Martin, and Rusty Pugh
March 31, 2005
(AgapePress) - Michael Schiavo got his wish. With the help of the courts, his wife has perished from starvation and dehydration.Terri Schiavo passed away this morning (Thursday) just before 10:00 Eastern time. The death of the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman was not unexpected. Her doctors had predicted she would die within one to two weeks after her feeding tube was removed -- an act ordered by a Florida judge and carried out on March 18.
According to news reports, Terri's parents and her siblings were at her bedside in a Pinellas Park, Florida, hospice until about ten minutes before her death. But Father Frank Pavone, a Catholic priest who has been advising Bob and Mary Schindler during the debate over their daughter's life, says Michael Schiavo's "heartless cruelty" continued to the end.
The priest says family members were asked to leave before Terri passed away. Pavone says the parents asked to be with her when she died, but Terri's estranged husband, Michael, refused. And Terri's death, Pavone says, is "a killing" and an "atrocity." Bob Schindler is expected to speak for the family later after a period of grieving.
'Culture of Death'
Pro-life advocates are reacting to Terri's death in expected fashion, offering their condolences to the Schindler family while at the same time calling attention to the events causing her death -- specifically, a culture of death fueled by activist judges.
The founder of the American Family Association, Dr. Don Wildmon, says he is hopeful the young woman's death will awaken those "who have stood and watched our society turn into a culture of death instead of a culture of life."
Wildmon also expresses his hope that Terri's death can serve as a turning point for the Church in America. He says it is time for the Church to face reality for the future of the nation.
"We have a major battle before us," the AFA founder says. "The culture of life and the culture of death are going to face each other off, and it remains to be seen which side is going to win. I just hope that those who call themselves Christians will care enough to get informed and get involved."
Terri's death, Wildmon adds, will not have been in vain if Christians become mobilized over the so-called "right-to-die" issue. "Christians must become more committed to taking part in the political process," he says.
Beverly LaHaye, founder and chairman of Concerned Women for America, also alluded to the role played by the courts in Terri's death, which it attributes to a "death-by-starvation" order handed down by Florida Judge George Greer. "There are simply not words to express our profound sorrow for the Schindler family, and the anguish they have experienced while watching Terri die such an excruciating death," LaHaye says in a press release.
"We are deeply saddened that [Terri's parents] found the life of their daughter in the hands of a merciless judicial system," the CWA founder adds. "Terri's Schiavo's battle to live will not be forgotten."
And like LaHaye, Eric Whittington of the American Life League believes Michael Schiavo had an accomplice in his wife's death: judges who have no value for human life. He says Terri's death by starvation would not have happened if more honorable men and women were on the bench.
"I encourage everyone to hold all elected officials accountable to make sure [those] officials do not put death advocates on the benches," the ALL spokesman says. "[I]f we put ... men of honor [on the bench] who value all human life, then we wouldn't see situations in cases like this."
Whittington says there are actually many cases like the Schiavo case going on in America, but that this case gained media attention because Terri's parents wanted her to live -- but her husband wanted her dead.
It is that exact issue -- the rights of incapacitated individuals -- that Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana says will be Terri Schiavo's legacy. "Congress must right this wrong by ensuring that incapacitated Americans may not be deprived of their inalienable right to life without the assurance of the due process of law that our federal courts were established to protect," the lawmaker says -- adding this ominous note: "With [Terri's] death, America lost not only a precious citizen, America lost its innocence."
