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Certainly the headline for the front page article, "Terri Schiavo's Bishop Warns Against Removing Feeding Tube," by Stephen Vince (August 24 - 30) took the most positive view possible of the long awaited statement by the bishop of St. Petersburg. But those positive words emerge as a terrible life and death vigil is rapidly coming to an end and follow language which indicates a husband who has abandoned his marriage vows, is living with a woman not his wife who has borne him a child and who has recently forbidden this Catholic woman from receiving the sacraments which a priest has brought every week for three years, is still to be recognized by the Catholic Church as having his legal wife's best interests in mind. This, in spite of the fact that money given him to provide medical and rehabilitation services for that wife have been paid to lawyers and doctors noted for their support of the culture of death. Small wonder that people with disabilities are puzzled and wonder if the Catholic Church really cares about their lives. That August 12th statement notes that "her family has not been able to come together to make a single, unified, mutually agreed upon decision concerning Terri's situation." Terri's family is totally united and includes a mother, a father and siblings who have been struggling to end the fabrication that Mr. Shiavo is concerned about Terri's continued welfare. Anyone concerned should certainly review the "real" family's web-site: terrisfight.org. As the executive director of a national Catholic office charged with promoting respect for the lives of people with various disabilities, I am receiving dozens of e-mails every day asking how we Catholics can say we are truly pro-life, yet fail to support the lives of those of us with significant disabilities. Yes, Terri is neurologically disabled but a number of medical and rehabilitation specialists not associated with the pro-euthanasia movement have affirmed she is NOT in a coma or persistent vegetative state. People with disabilities are asking why the Catholic press doesn't ask "us" about such cases. There is a phrase, "Nothing about us without us," which apparently meant little to the reporter and editor when this story was researched. It is "us," those of us with disabilities, who are under attack by experts with a utilitarian view of life. Thousands of us with disabilities have experienced negative judgments of the quality of our lives. At one point I was urged to accept death rather than request antibiotics to treat pneumonia. This was justified on the basis that "pneumonia is an easy way to go." I had the ability to fire such "experts." Terri does not. She has had to depend upon her "real" family and we have failed her and them! Starvation and dehydration are NOT easy ways to go. People are asking me when the idealism of "Evangelium Vitae," was cancelled. What do I tell them? Mary Jane Owen, TOP, MSW |
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