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Terri
Schiavo Is Not A Right To Die Case.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2005
The
Following Statement Can Be Attributed To Nevada LIFE
President
Don Nelson
The Terri
Schiavo case has been described in many media articles
as being “a right to die case.” It is not. These
descriptions leave readers, viewers and listeners with
the false impression that Terri wants to die and is
being kept alive by her parents and right to life
advocates who are denying her wishes to die and are
causing her pain, suffering and forcing her to live a
meaningless existence.
Terri
Schiavo is NOT dying. She is not sick. She
has no terminal illness.
She is not in a coma.
She is not on life support.
Terri is not alone and she has not requested
death. Fourteen
doctors, six of whom are neurologists, flatly
contradict the court’s findings that she is in a
persistent vegetative state.
If Florida Judge George Greer allows Terri’s
feeding tube to be removed, this will not merely allow
Terri to die. It
will kill Terri.
This case
is about who gets to choose for Terri Schiavo, what
kind of care handicapped people deserve and what we
think of them. Should
Terri’s still legal husband Michael Schiavo, who has
been living with another woman for ten years and with
whom he has two children be able to end his helpless
wife’s life? Should
this man who has refused Terri any rehabilitative
treatment, severely limited access to her family,
friends, spiritual caregivers, kept her in a dim
little room and hidden her from the media be allowed
to begin the painful process of euthanasia to end his
wife’s life by starvation?
Sworn
testimony from health care professionals caring for
Terri swears that Terri communicates with staff and
family and that Michael Schiavo has forcefully
deprived her of any therapy. He has even refused to allow her to receive anti-biotics.
If true, these actions are abuse and neglect.
Terri’s family is willing to care for her for
the rest of her life.
There is no reason to call this is a right to
die case. There
is no reason that Terri Schiavo should be killed.
Michael Schiavo has no moral authority to do
so. The
court and Judge Greer should know better.
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