An excellent article by Alexandra Snyder, Chief Executive Officer at Life Legal Defense Foundation - please see www.lifelegaldefensefoundation.org.

Conversation opened. 1 unread message. Skip to content Using Gmail with screen readers 5 of 498 Terri Schiavo and the Case for Making a Fuss…. Inbox Life Legal Defense Foundation Mar 28, 2024, 6:29 PM (2 days ago) to me Terri Schiavo and the Case for Making a Fuss…. Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024 – the day on which Christians will celebrate the glorious resurrection of a man wrongly condemned and cruelly executed – will mark the 19th anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death. She died by deliberately inflicted starvation and dehydration, an injustice that we at Life Legal and many other pro-lifers fought to prevent. Reading commentary in the mainstream press on Terri’s pseudo-medical termination is instructive if depressing. Most pundits emphasize a single point – one that finally puzzles them deeply. The case of Terri Schiavo, they observe, broke no new legal ground. Why was it such a big deal? Why did governors, state legislators, the U.S. Congress, and even the sitting president (George W. Bush, in case our younger readers want to know) embroil themselves in the controversy? In the view of these commentators, it was obvious that Michael Schiavo, the husband who put his disabled wife through the torment of a slow and painful death, was in the right. Legally, he was the next of kin. Why shouldn’t he be permitted to carry out his plans for Terri’s elimination? Wasn’t everything legally in order? Why did everybody make such a fuss? I’ve even heard pro-lifers ask a similar question. They believe in the value of innocent human life. They don’t agree with the secular opinion peddlers who suggest that Terri’s disabled life was of no value. They wish she had been saved. They ask, however, about all the effort expended. After all, our side lost, didn’t it? In retrospect, couldn’t we say that it was all a waste? I recall one prominent figure who made a fuss about Terri Schiavo: Pope John Paul II, now a canonized saint. Aside from official Vatican pronouncements on the case, which of course upheld the value of Terri’s life, the pope personally addressed a conference on end-of-life practices and insisted that food and water, administered by any means, constitute ordinary care, not extraordinary intervention – even for patients with severe brain injuries. What’s more, the pope bore witness on behalf of Terri Schiavo with his own life. He himself was suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease as Terri’s case was in the news and made a point of displaying his disability rather than concealing it. This unusual openness was widely interpreted as an effort to suffer publicly in solidarity with Terri and with others like her. We are disabled, he seemed to say, but we are still human beings. The pope died two days after Terri, on April 2, 2005. By any fair accounting, the fuss made about Terri was not a waste even in purely practical terms. By making a fuss, Terri’s parents, her brother, and all the other people who got involved saved Terri from starvation and dehydration for seven long years. Every day of Terri’s life over that period was, in objective terms, a positive good. Moreover, I maintain that, even if no practical result had been achieved, Terri Shiavo’s life was well worth making a fuss about. This is an important principle in pro-life activism generally. Like your average abortion mill suction aspirator operator, Michael Schiavo wanted to get rid of his victim in silence, in darkness, without a fuss. Like street level protesters outside the abortion mill, Terri’s family and many others made the kind of fuss that killers just can’t stand. Pro-lifers save many lives by making this sort of fuss in front of the neighborhood child murder center. But they render a service even to the many children they fail to save. Little babies shouldn’t be torn apart at all by posturing ghouls with medical degrees. But, if they are torn apart, it shouldn’t be done silently, in the dark, without a fuss. A principle of the Common Law is that silence implies consent. And we pro-lifers do not consent to what was done to Terri Schiavo, to what is done to babies in murder mills. We’re not going to be silent. We’re going to make a fuss. In Western iconography, the resurrection of Christ is usually shown with Christ himself as the sole figure returned from the dead. One of my favorites is The Kinnaird Resurrection, by Raphael. There are angels, there are soldiers, there are women approaching – and there’s the Risen Christ. In Eastern iconography, Christ is resurrected in company – usually Adam and Eve, the Patriarchs, the Prophets. He emerges from the place of the dead and brings the dead, now alive, with him. This Easter I shall picture Christ rising, glorious and triumphant, and with him, in the company of patriarchs and prophets, none other than Terri Schiavo, triumphing in his triumph, and glad at last that so many people thought she was worth making a fuss about. Grace & Guidance: Navigating Abortion in the Christian Community Webinar // Thursday, April 11 // 5pm Pacific Are you passionate about protecting the sanctity of life? Curious about how you and your church can address the delicate topic of abortion in an impactful and loving way? Join Alexandra Snyder, CEO of Life Legal Defense Foundation and Samuel Green, President of Reason for Life as they discuss reaching “pro-choice” churchgoers with confidence and compassion We’ll have an engaging conversation about Biblical passages establishing the value of children in the womb Practical strategies for fostering a culture of life within your churc Supporting post-abortive women with empathy and understanding Rising above the political fray to engage in meaningful discourse on abortio How churches can actively promote life-affirming decision The questions that YOU have about this critical topic & more! "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter." Proverbs 24:11 PLEASE DONATE TODAY! SHARE ON FACEBOOK Please pray for Life Legal cases and clients. Click here or on the image above to view and print our most current prayer requests. 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