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Saving
Terri Schiavo: TFP Calls on America to Reject
Roe v. Wade’s Bitter Fruits
America is unsettled over the case of Terri Schiavo.
Fifteen years ago, she suffered brain
damage that left her totally dependent on others for basic
care, including nourishment. Pursuant to a court order,
this nourishment is scheduled to end March 18, when Michael
Schiavo, her estranged husband and guardian, will have her
feeding tube removed.1
Bob and Mary Schindler, Terri’s parents, have been
battling in the courts to prevent their daughter’s
death by starvation.
Terri Schiavo’s Condition
Food and water are all Terri needs
to stay alive. Reliable health care specialists testify
that she is not comatose and can improve substantially with
physical therapy. Many neurologists believe that eventually
she could feed herself and even move from her wheelchair
into her bed.2
Every Human Being Has a Fundamental
Right to Life
Man’s fundamental rights stem
from his free and rational nature. No human law can abrogate
these fundamental human rights. Man’s inviolable right
to life is the first right and therefore the basis for all
others.
For a guardian to claim, or a court to
grant, the “right” to dispose of a charge’s
life is tantamount to saying that the person is not a human
being but a thing: chattel that the guardian has –
as stipulated in the maxim of Roman law – the right
“to make use, enjoy the fruits, and dispose of.”
Yet nobody has the right to reduce a human
being to chattel, be that human being a defenseless embryo,
a totally dependent newborn, an elderly person, or one debilitated
by trauma or illness.
Consequently, under natural law, no mother
has the right to intentionally abort the child in her womb
or to starve her newborn. Likewise, no family member or
government official has the right to starve an innocent
woman to death simply because she is disabled and burdensome.
Natural Law Binds Everybody
in All Times
This natural law that protects the
right to life and all other fundamental human rights is
man’s perception of the eternal law, the sovereign
and divine will that created and ordered all things. Natural
law sets the rules for moral behavior and should be the
cornerstone of all human positive law.
Accordingly, the maxims of natural law
are knowable by human reason. Almost 2,000 years ago, in
his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul stated that the pagans
knew the demands of this law, because they are “written
in the hearts.”3
That the ancient Greeks knew this is attested by the verses
of Antigone (442 B.C.) in which the dramatist Sophocles
writes of the “unwritten and unchanging laws”
that govern human behavior.4
Natural Law Anchored in Divine
and Eternal Law
When human laws are not based on these
“unwritten and unchanging laws,” they are based
on the will of legislators and judges. Whereas laws based
on natural law bind with all the strength of human nature,
those based on the will of legislators or judges bind only
with the strength of their ability to enforce compliance.
However, on the strictly natural plane,
the will of one man is equal to that of any other; therefore,
no man can impose his will on others. Only a law backed
by a will superior to man’s can bind other men. This
superior will is that of God, the supreme legislator.5
Society Without Natural Law
Leads to Tyranny
When natural law and its ultimate
foundation in God’s eternal law is denied, either
all law becomes impossible or it is left at the mercy of
human caprice and easily becomes tyrannical. The power of
legislators and judges becomes unlimited and consequently,
through the approval or interpretation of laws, the greatest
aberrations are imposed on society.
The “glorious freedom of the
children of God” (Rom. 8:21) is abandoned and society
sinks into a tyranny where the most sacred rights are cut
down and trod under foot.
From Roe v. Wade to
Terri Schiavo
In 1973, the Supreme Court created
the “right” of a mother to kill her unborn child.
This decision was molded by a philosophy opposed to natural
law and based on a mistaken notion of liberty.
Those who subscribe to this false philosophy
naturally tend to take it to its final consequences, pressing
for the creation of other “rights” equally detached
from and opposed to natural law, such as embryonic stem
cell research, human cloning, the practice of homosexuality,
pedophilia, same-sex “marriage,” and euthanasia.
Terri Schiavo’s death by starvation
is the logical progression of the unnatural philosophy informing
Roe v. Wade.
Human Life Is Not Measured
by Material Usefulness
Human life is a precious gift, indeed
the greatest gift one can possibly receive in the natural
order. It cannot be quantified, and its usefulness does
not depend on others or society. First and foremost, human
life is a personal and unique gift. Every human being is
different and a masterpiece of the Creator.
The quality of human life does
not depend on its material usefulness or exercise.
Rather, this quality stems from the intrinsic value of human
life, from the intellectual substance that is individualized
in a specific human being.
The priceless gift of human life
is present in the fragile newborn who cries when hungry
and smiles when comforted; in the unconscious or crippled
patient lying motionless on a hospital bed; in the aged
man who has come to the end of his strength. Fragility and
dependence provide charity – that most sublime Christian
virtue – with an occasion for disinterested sacrifice
and devotion. These lives so dependent on others possess
a true and superior usefulness, one that ennobles
and sanctifies the human race.
Human Life Is Never Reduced
to Vegetative Life
Saint Thomas Aquinas affirms that
“the intellectual soul contains virtually whatever
belongs to the sensitive soul of brute animals, and to the
nutritive souls of plants.”6
Thus, in common with the plant kingdom, men are born, grow
and nourish themselves; in common with the animal kingdom,
they have sensibility and movement; and in common with the
angels, they have a spiritual life, intellect and will.
There are not three “souls”
or vital principles in a human being. Rather, there is but
one spiritual and immortal soul, which contains the two
lower dynamic principles.7
To say that a patient is in a “vegetative
state” is to speak metaphorically. The patient is
still a human being, not a plant. Though the body’s
debilities do not permit the patient’s soul to display
its full splendor, that soul is still there. It is present
in all its rationality, and therefore the patient is entitled
to all the fundamental rights inherent to a human being.
While it is legitimate to use the expression
persistent vegetative life as a technical simplification
for medical purposes, one cannot turn a description of the
patient’s state into a definition of the patient.
One cannot attribute to a technical description a philosophical
meaning it does not have. Even when in a state of “persistent
vegetative life,” a human being remains a human being.8
Of What Use Are Human Rights,
If the Right to Nourishment Is Denied?
If man has a fundamental right to
life, then he has a fundamental right to nourishment, since
life depends upon nourishment. This right surpasses the
right to private property. If a starving person has no other
means to feed himself, he may take food from others who
need it less. The inability of a newborn or a disabled person
to feed himself does not diminish his right to nourishment.
It is not compassion but cruelty to deny
an innocent human being food and water until he dies. This
is to subject him to a slow and excruciatingly painful death.
To paraphrase Madame Roland, “O compassion, compassion,
how many crimes are committed in your name!”
The Rights of Patients in
a
“Persistent Vegetative State”
A joint statement of the Pontifical
Academy for Life and the World Federation of Catholic Medical
Associations defined the rights of patients in a so-called
persistent vegetative state as follows:
In particular, vegetative state patients
have the right to:
1) Correct and thorough diagnostic evaluation, in order
to avoid possible mistakes and to orient rehabilitation
in the best way;
2) Basic care, including hydration, nutrition, warming
and personal hygiene;
3) Prevention of possible complications and monitoring
for any possible signs of recovery;
4) Adequate rehabilitative processes, prolonged in time,
favoring the recovery and maintenance of all progress
achieved;
5) Be treated as any other patients with reference to
general assistance and affective relationships.9
John Paul II: There Is a Moral
Obligation to Provide Nutrition and Hydration
Pope John Paul II has stressed the
moral obligation to provide adequate nourishment to patients
in conditions such as Terri Schiavo’s:
I should like particularly to
underline how the administration of water and food, even
when provided by artificial means, always represents a
natural means of preserving life, not a medical
act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered,
in principle, ordinary and proportionate,
and as such morally obligatory, insofar as and until it
is seen to have attained its proper finality, which in
the present case consists in providing nourishment to
the patient and alleviation of his suffering.10
Vehement Appeal to Government
Representatives
The American Society for the Defense
of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP), along with many
other pro-life, pro-family organizations, urges our government
representatives to intervene decisively in Terri Schiavo’s
case.
We urge Congress to approve and President
Bush to sign into law the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection
Act of 2005 and any other effective legislative measures.
We urge President Bush to nominate and
the Senate to confirm federal judges with the courage necessary
to honor the unchanging norms of natural law and reverse
the nation’s deplorable moral slide since Roe
v. Wade.
We urge state governments to take similar
steps in their jurisdictions.
The terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001 opened one of the most decisive phases of our history.
Dangers we did not imagine just a few years ago threaten
America today. To face them victoriously, we need more than
the concerted and dedicated sacrifices of the nation. We
need the support of Divine Providence.
We can count on this blessing if as a
nation we turn the tide of moral relativism and honor God
and His law.
March 15, 2005
The American TFP
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