She was dragged to the abyss of death by court sanctioned starvation and dehydration. Her situation demanded justice; her predicament cried for mercy; her humanity called to a nation’s allegiance to protect and treasure the Right to Life (even for the weakest), -- as was proclaimed at the birth of America.
Those who espoused Terri’s contrived right to die seemed to believe it’s better to be dead than disabled. Based on some passing remark Terri made back when she was in her twenties, her estranged husband said she didn’t want to live with profound disability. Who does? But that did not mean she was better off dead.
Love is the final arbiter
I am seriously disabled with MS and I wish it were not so. But disability (or ability) does not decide the value of life. It never has. Love is the final arbiter of life’s value. I want to love and be loved, I want to be valued and included in the lives of my family, and spend time with my grandchildren. I want to receive the Body of Christ and bask in His eternal love. Love is the glue of human and divine connection. I have those things. And so my life is worth living despite increasing paralysis, the contraptions of disability the slow, unstoppable physical degeneration. My future may be as disabled as Terri Schiavo. The difference is that she was robbed of the human love of her family … and they were robbed of her love. An estranged husband’s infidelity was portrayed a fidelity, his abandonment as love.
Bioethicist and Judge reveled in the logic of spiritual darkness; savage and savants, they hovered over a voiceless and defenseless woman. It was a bitter foretaste of things to come for the disabled and deranged, those born too young or those who live too long. Tiger and tyrant, will deliberate and pontificate on which lives meet arbitrary standards for quality and which fall below.
It can be stopped by good and decent people. Their weapons are the ballot, their wallets and their voices. Vote in only those who believe in the dignity and equality of all human life. Politicians who will not protect the Right to Life are unfit for public office. Media that promote abortion and euthanasia should be boycotted and (using the liberal tactic on themselves) shouted down and protested at every turn.
Nothing less than the value of every human life is at stake! If we will not stand up for the value of human life, and the previous Christian consensus many of us held dear, what will we stand up for? It is time for Christians to stop the madness of secular North America and take back the culture. Do not overlook the magnitude of what is unfolding before our eyes. The blood of over 50 million aborted children cries to our consciences. The blood of Terri Schiavo (and millions of disabled people yet to be euthanized) will either serve as a rallying cry or indictment of North American society.
Strengthen the things that remain of a former Christian consensus. Reclaim what has been lost. The culture itself is dying. Storm the gates of the secular Babylon!