Ed Jordan of Media Culpa has an utterly bizarre excerpt from an interview with Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, arguing against any attempt to see if Terri Schiavo can receive food by mouth:
Such a death from aspirated food entering her lungs would be painful, Felos said."Mrs. Schiavo is entitled to a peaceful death with dignity," he said. "She's going to aspirate and she's going to have an extended, gruesome death" if fed.Let me get this straight.
Death by aspiration is "extended" and "gruesome."
Death by starvation and dehydration is "with dignity."
Meanwhile, Fr. Rob Johansen reports in Thrown Back that Judge George Greer, who has ordered Terri's murder, has refused Terri's parents' motion that she receive Viaticum, which is Holy Communion for the dying. Had the judge granted the motion, he would have had to acknowledge that she can swallow, a fact that he is trying to hide so that he can order her starved without anyone's being permitted to feed her by mouth. In fact, Terri is certainly able to swallow; if she couldn't, she would have choked on her saliva long ago, as she does not always have a feeding tube in her throat.
Someone asked me today why the Terri Schiavo case is so important. If this innocent woman can be murdered because of the wishes of a man who has no independent proof of her wish to die (while there is much proof to the contrary)—a man who has no interest in keeping her alive, but great financial interest in seeing her dead—then our society has completely devalued human life.
To learn what you can do to save Terri's life, visit BlogsForTerri.com or TerrisFight.org (the official site, which takes donations for Terri's parents' court fight).
