~THE RIGHT TO LIVE!~

I am very very disturbed about the plight of Terri Shindler-Schiavo...http://terrisfight.org/

the woman whose right to live is being taken away from her by her husbands persistant efforts to have her feeding tube pulled, depriving her of food and water NOT JUST by way of the feeding tube, but orally as well.. She collapsed in 1990 and was found by her husband, barely breathing and after resuscitation attempts were made, she suffered severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen. She was comatose and in a near vegetative stage and non-responsive. She eventually, with medical treatment, emerged from the coma and although she required a ventilator to breathe and a feeding tube, she was improving somewhat. As the years have gone by, she has become capable of swallowing, although not able to chew and eat, so still requiring a feeding tube, yet she no longer requires any breathing assistance and her general health has been fairly good. She responds to stimuli, looks around, smiles, laughs a bit and enjoys listening to music. If she had received intensive therapy she may have learned to chew, swallow, possibly speak, possibly not atrophied...yet, she is only 41 and there is still hope.

BUT FRIDAY HER HUSBAND HAD HER FEEDING ENDED TO CAUSE HER TO DIE!

http://terrisfight.org/

Terri has been without food or water since friday!

Today, President Bush signed a bill so that it may still be possible for Terri's feeding tube to be restored!

She is most definitely not a vegetable, like some are saying. I have read her medical reports, watched the videos of her with her Mother and throughout I have cried...I have felt pain for her parents and family. I think the entire situation is a nightmare. Her husband, being Terri's legal guardian has made decisions for Terri that were certainly not in her favor! After Terri's accident, her husband won a lawsuit her had initiated, claiming wrongful diagnosis, toward the doctors who had been treating Terri before her mishap. A million dollars was awarded.He was awarded 300, 000 dollars, with the remainder to go for Terri's care. As I understand it, as soon as he was awarded the settlement, all the medical care and therapy Terri had been receiving was stopped by him, and her husband began to initiate proceedings to end her life by means of starvation and dehydration.This is the third time her feeding tube has been removed...one time she was deprived of food and water for 6 days before it was reinstated! Can you imagine?! This horrifying suffering, to be directed at Terri, an innocent victim ... as she lay incapacitated and unable to speak for herself! Death row inmates face mere moments of suffering as they are executed, put to death as punishment for the heinous crimes they have committed! Yet, the type of death Michael Schiavo wishes on Terri is a brutal, miserably painful way to die. It's not enough to wish her dead, he wishes her death to be gruesome and hellish...her suffering to be endlessly long!!! Dehydration and starvation can take up to 20 days!!! Terri is in good physical health...death's sufferings will take even longer! All on an innocent woman!!!! Here> http://www.fromtheoldschool.com/socialstudies/terri/exit.htm

is how she will die if she does not receive a last-minute repreive. Why!? WHY? WHY? An innocent woman , who committed no crime, who has had all her freedom snatched away from her!!! By her husbands accounts, she is nothing but a vegetable...he claims she would not choose to live this way....but Terri is VERY MUCH ALIVE!

http://www.blogsforterri.com/

Her eyes light up as her Mother enters the room, she smiles and tries to communicate...she makes faces at her father, she listens, raptly, passionately as she hears the piano music she so loves!! These are not the actions of a vegetable! With therapy, Terri could improve, yet her husband has deprived her of it! Her loving parents have been through a 15 year hellish battle for Terri's life...her RIGHT to live! Who does her husband or anyone else think they are to decide she should die? How can those people who voted against her live with themselves...this makes them murderers too! How can any healthcare worker, whose job it is to help bring about healing and comfort, KNOWINGLY take part in the killing of a healthy woman who has the right to live?

If you have ever seen a stroke victim, whose speech or ability to walk has been affected by the stroke, you also know that people can and do bounce back...the road may be long, the results may be slow in coming, but many stroke victims fully recover and we don't kill them! Some people's ability to swallow may be compromised, causing an inability to eat, so a feeding tube is used...we don't kill them because of it! Someone breaks their neck, becoming a quadraplegic...requiring 24 hour care, breathing assistance....feeding, catheters...etc...they're not KILLED because of it! They're assisted, rehabilitated....cared for! I do not understand why some people think that if someone is mentally compromised, they don''t feel....aren't human...don't have rights.....

If that were true and decreased mental functioning were a criteria for euthanasia, Michael Schiavo had better watch his back.

What the hell gives anyone the right to decide they can end someone's life? As though Terri were an inconvenience...someone in the way of his chosen path. I even read that one of the doctors likened Terri to "A houseplant"! Can you believe that! It sickened me!

Terri is a living, breathing, feeling

HUMAN BEING!

Michael Schiavo is reported to have moved on and begun a new family, although still legally bound by marriage to Terri. He apparently will not divorce her. Michael's girlfriend might want to think long and hard about what kind of person would choose to murder an innocent, living, breathing woman he remains wed to...She might wonder what Michael would choose for HER should she meet the same sort of fate and become unable to impart her wishes. I am praying fervently that the Judge will rule in favour of Terri and her feeding tube will be returned to her...praying her family will find a way to regain control over their daughter's welfare and never face another battle over Terri's right to life. I pray for YOU Terri...that God may miraculously heal you, body and spirit.

I pray and the world prays.....

May God bless you

Terri