AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA

Resources

Home

Statement of Purpose

Current Action Alert ( sign up to receive AFA of PA Action Alerts

Pornography Fight

Pro-Life Issues

GUEST COMMENTARY: by Diane Gramley

Two Scenarios
March 2005

Scenario One: a dog is locked in a room in a local veterinary hospital in Pinellas Park, Florida and not allowed food or water. He obviously will die. Previously it had been deemed that he was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), even though he had been denied therapy and had not been allowed outside for over three years. His owners insist that he responds when they are in the room – he does not require life support, his eyes are open and follows movement around the room, he responds to their commands to the best of his abilities.

We all know that the streets would be filled with protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the local SPCA. The dog is rescued in the end and the staff of the veterinary hospital face charges of cruelty to animals.

Now let’s change the scenario and place a brain-damaged 41-year-old woman in that same situation in a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida. Her husband, who happens to have lived with another woman for the past ten years and has two children with her, insists that his wife, Terri, would not want to live by artificial means. Of course, he remembered this only after receiving over $1.6 million from a lawsuit in which he testified that he loved Terri and would use the money for her therapy and rehabilitative services. Instead he has denied her therapy, and basic medical and dental care. He has refused to allow her to have a MRI. Terri’s parents want custody of their daughter and have asked the husband to relinquish his guardianship. He has ignored their offer and instead hired lawyers to ask the courts to remove his wife’s feeding tube.

This story is, of course, the Terri Schiavo story. The woman who collapsed under mysterious circumstances fifteen years ago and has now been sentenced to die by dehydration and starvation. Death by starvation involves acid eating through the stomach and the body developing infections. The body starts to dissolve from the inside out. Death row prisoners are not executed in such an inhumane way.

The husband, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos is a member of the pro-death Hemlock Society and is a leading advocate of so-called mercy-killing. The Amazon.com entry for his book says he is "spearheading a social revolution to enable death with dignity in the state of Florida."

But is allowing someone, who breathes on her own and responds to outside stimuli, to die by dehydration and starvation dying with dignity? Mrs. Schiavo left no clear directive as to her wishes, but one must be suspect of a husband who has obviously ‘gotten on with his life’ and even denies his wife the most basic rehabilitative services.

Court-appointed doctor, Dr. Ronald Cranford is a leading proponent of the right-to-die and physician-assisted suicide. He has offered testimony that spoon feeding is ‘medical treatment.” In an op-ed piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, he writes that he supports the starvation death of people affected with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Cranford spent about 45 minutes with Mrs. Shciavo and concluded that she is PVS. He has described PVS patients as indistinguishable from other forms of animal life and they lack personhood and should have no constitutional rights. Reviewing cases and articles surrounding the “right to die” and PVS, one will see Dr. Cranford’s name again and again -- he is the one claiming PVS, and advocating the cessation of nutrition and hydration

Yet Dr. William Hammesfahr, a neurologist who specializes in the treatment of brain injuries, has spent approximately 12 hours examining Mrs. Schiavo. At an October 24, 2003, press conference, he said that she is not in a persistent vegetative. He stated that Mrs. Schiavo responded to his commands for a standard strength test. Dr. Hammesfahr observed her moving her limbs into even uncomfortable positions upon command. This is an indication of voluntary response, not involuntary reflex as the court-appointed doctors have stated. By definition, if there is response to the outside world that person is not PVS.

Dr. Hammesfahr and almost fifty other neurologists have stated that Mrs. Schiavo should be reevaluated. Nurses at the hospice have testified that Mrs. Schiavo had previously been eating puddings and drinking thickened liquids. Several years ago Michael Schiavo demanded that they stop feeding her by mouth and give her nourishment solely through the feeding tube. He has even admonished them not to allow her to hold a washcloth because that is therapy!

Michael Schiavo admitted on Larry King Live on March 18, after his wife's feeding tube had been removed, "We didn't know what Terri wanted, but this is what we want..."

This debate has drawn a stark line between the culture of life and the culture of death. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania recently contacted the National Organization for Women (NOW) asking for their input on the Schiavo debate. The letter said in part “Apparently NOW is only interested in the rights of certain women. But a brain-damaged woman in Florida whose husband is going to great lengths to see dead is not important enough to have rights. Terri Schiavo's husband is treating her like a piece of property to dispose of at will and NOW doesn't see a problem?" We are still awaiting a reply form NOW.

By and large, the ones holding vigil outside the Hospice of Florida Suncoast at Woodside in Pinellas County are those who hold traditional family values. These same people have been vilified for holding those values. But if I was lying in the hospice bed that Terri Schiavo is now lying in, slowing dying by dehydration and starvation, I would much rather have them on my side than NOW.

Our nation stands at a crossroads – will we err on the side of life or allow the court-ordered death of a disabled woman to continue? Adolf Hitler began with the physically and mentally disabled. But even he humanely gassed them and did not allow them a slow, agonizing death by starvation and dehydration. If Terri Schiavo is permitted to die, who will be next?