The Judge has denied the request of the Schindler’s to re-insert the feeding tube, and the case will now go to the 11th Appeals Court.
In case you are still confused, this is not about Terri Schiavo and her ability to recover. This is not about Terri Schiavo getting rehab and returning to the world of the living. This is not about making sure that Terri Schiavo has receive due process.
The metanarrative of this story is one of religion, politics, and abortion, and that has been clear from the very beginning. I apologize to those of my readers who do honestly care about Terri Schiavo and her right to life, but that is not what this is about at all to those leading the fight to keep Terri Schiavo in her current condition:
Gibbs said that “fairly dramatic developments,” including a statement by Pope John Paul II that removing a feeding tube would be a sin except in rare instances, are proof that Schiavo’s constitutional rights to freely practice her religion are being infringed upon. Refusing to resume her tube-feeding would “jeopardize her eternal soul,” Gibbs said.
Felos tried to cast doubt on Gibbs’s religious-expression argument, pointing out that there was testimony at the 2001 trial that Schiavo “did not attend Mass regularly.”
Richard Doerflinger, vice president of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement on Monday praising Congress and Bush. “Terri is not terminally ill,” he said. “She is a woman with cognitive disabilities.”
Statements opposing the tube removal by the church’s pro-life committees have resonated with Roman Catholics here, as well as with the antiabortion activists who have taken up Schiavo’s cause. Gibbs has adopted the language of the antiabortion debate, repeatedly characterizing the Schiavo battle on Monday as “a pro-life case.”
When you think of the words ‘culture of life,’ they are not talking about the living. They are talking about the unborn- that is where this rhetoric has come from. Fostering a culture of life means ending abortion. Do a google search yourself. Here is one that uses the search “Bush + Culture + of + life + abortion.” Interesting, isn’t it?
This is not about Terri Schaivo- this is about religion and abortion. Read how this case got to where it is:
When a judge set last Friday as the deadline for removing Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, Ken Connor, a Florida trial lawyer and prominent Christian conservative who represented Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida on this issue, decided to appeal to a higher power, Congress.
He turned to an old acquaintance, Representative Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican and doctor, in a long-shot effort to persuade Congress to intervene. Convicted murderers have more chances to appeal to the federal courts than patients who are incapacitated, Mr. Connor argued…
Equally important were the last-minute decisions of two of the most powerful Republicans on Capitol Hill – the Senate leader, Bill Frist, and the House leader, Tom DeLay – each of whom threw the full weight of their offices behind the effort.
On Friday, as the leaders of both chambers scrambled to try to stop the removal of Ms. Schiavo’s feeding tube, Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, turned his attention to social conservatives gathered at a Washington hotel and described what he viewed as the intertwined struggle to save Ms. Schiavo, expand the conservative movement and defend himself against accusations of ethical lapses.
“One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America,” Mr. DeLay told a conference organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. A recording of the event was provided by the advocacy organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“This is exactly the issue that is going on in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others,” Mr. DeLay said.
Mr. DeLay complained that “the other side” had figured out how “to defeat the conservative movement,” by waging personal attacks, linking with liberal organizations and persuading the national news media to report the story. He charged that “the whole syndicate” was “a huge nationwide concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in.”
This is not about Terri Schiavo’s wishes. This is not about her ever enjoying a cup of coffee again, having an independent action or an independent thought. This is about politics, religion, and abortion:
In 2003, her plight became a cause in conservative and anti-abortion circles thanks partly to Governor Bush, who ordered doctors not to remove her feeding tube and picked Mr. Connor, a former president of the Family Research Council, to represent him.
By last summer, Ms. Schiavo had become so celebrated among Christian conservatives that her brother was a guest of honor at a rally for Catholics at the Republican National Convention in New York.
Eventually, the National Right to Life Committee worked with Dr. Weldon to sponsor a broad bill that would grant some incapacitated patients certain rights to appeal to federal courts.
I wish this was about Terri Schiavo. But it simply isn’t.
More here.
Jesurgislac
John Cole
That was one of the best scenes ever on the West Wing.
Jesurgislac
Yes, it was. I miss Aaron Sorkin.
What he could have done with a grotesquerie like the Terri Schiavo case, reflected in the West Wing universe, would be something to hope for.
ape
JC – your coverage of this matter has been exemplary – well done JC.
Scott Chaffin
I wish this was about Terri Schiavo. But it simply isn’t.
I guess if you keep repeating it, it will come true.
Fargus
Scott, much as you’d like to plug your ears and not hear it, you’ve got a medical doctor/senator making a diagnosis based on a clip show/invoking the name of God over and over again in this case. I think that he’s shown, along with many other members of Congress, that his decision-making process is fundamentally impaired.