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HOWARD CENTER DECRIES FLORIDA COURT’S
DEATH WISH FOR TERRI SCHIAVO
Jean Heise, special advisor to The Howard Center for Family,
Religion and Society, decried yesterday’s decision of the Florida
Supreme Court overturning Terri’s Law, thus paving the way for the
medical murder of Terri Schiavo.
“Society should always give the benefit of the doubt to life,”
Heise commented. “And in Terri’s case, there is ample evidence that
this is a life worth preserving.”
The court ruled that Terri’s law, which allowed Florida Governor
Jeb Bush to order the reinsertion of the disabled woman’s feeding
tubes, violated the constitutional separation of powers.
“It’s ironic,” Heise said, “when you consider that the judiciary
violates the separation of powers – by usurping legislative
authority – on a regular basis. That’s what the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court did when it ordered the state’s legislature
to establish gay marriage. And that’s what this very court did in
2000, when it told the state to continue doing recounts, despite a
15-day deadline for finalizing the vote, established by the
legislature.”
Terri Schiavo became disabled in 1990 when, under unexplained
circumstances, oxygen to her brain was cut off for several minutes.
In 2000, her husband, who maintains Terri is in a persistent
vegetative state, persuaded a judge to order her feeding tubes
removed.
But Terri’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, dispute Michael
Schiavo’s contention, maintaining that their daughter is alert, has
a strong will to live and could be rehabilitated with therapy. More
than a dozen medical experts agree.
Moreover, they note that Michael’s interest in ending his wife’s
life by starvation started when he began living with a woman he now
has two children with.
Heise observed: “The legislature and Governor Bush intervened
when it became clear that the Florida courts were more interested in
expediting Terri’s death, than in an objective evaluation of the
evidence in favor of her continued existence.”
“It’s a sad state of affairs when the judiciary – which should be
dedicated to vindicating the rights of the innocent – instead
becomes the executioner of the most vulnerable among us.”
The Howard Center for Family Religion and Society is the founder
and U.S. organizer of the World Congress of Families.
At World Congress of Families III in Mexico City (March 29-31,
2004), more than 3,300 delegates from over 70 countries approved a
Declaration which included the following affirmation: “Every human
person has intrinsic value throughout the continuum of life, from
fertilization until natural death.” (Emphasis added). The entire
text of this pro-family declaration can be found on the World
Congress of Families website at:
http://worldcongress.org/WCF3/wcf3_dec.htm
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