"Keep far from a false matter and be very careful
not to condemn to death the innocent and the righteous
for I will not justify and acquit the wicked."
Exodus 23:7
This past Friday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an
"Aid-In-Dying" law which will give terminally ill adults with less
than six months to live the right to request to their doctors to prescribe
to them a lethal dose of medication to end their life. New Jersey is now
the ninth state in the union to pass Aid-In-Dying legislation.
It has also been legalized in Washington DC.
It has also been legalized in Washington DC.
Thirty some years ago, as a student at Gloucester Catholic High School,
I can clearly remember the day when our principal, Father Thomas MacIntyre,
who also taught psychology to Junior and Senior students,
stood before the class one day and told us that the greatest
who also taught psychology to Junior and Senior students,
stood before the class one day and told us that the greatest
challenges facing our generation would be abortion-on-demand
and euthanasia. While I knew abortion was the murder of
an unborn child in the womb, I had to look up the definition of
the latter in the dictionary to discover that euthanasia was the
the latter in the dictionary to discover that euthanasia was the
deliberate taking of human life outside the womb.
At the signing ceremony, Governor Murphy praised the main sponsor of
this legislation, Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Burlington) "for steering
us down the long, difficult road" as well as other legislators for their
"courage" in passing the bill.
What is so courageous about passing a law giving someone the right
to commit medically-induced or assisted suicide?
What is so courageous about passing a law giving someone the right
to commit medically-induced or assisted suicide?
Opponents of this bill argued that it cheapens human life and rightly so.
According to Matt Valliere, executive director of the Patients Rights
Action Fund, "With the signing of this bill to legalize assisted suicide,
many vulnerable New Jerseyans are now at risk of deadly harm
through mistakes, coercion, and abuse. People with disabilities,
the economically disadvantaged, and terminally ill patients
are at the greatest risk-dangerous public policies often
ignore the voices of the vulnerable."
Governor Murphy has already proven that he has absolutely no
problem with ignoring the voices of the vulnerable, particularly the unborn.
Not only is he radically pro-abortion, but credits the support of Planned Parenthood
as one of the primary reason for him winning the 2017 gubernatorial election.
As stated in a recent article in the South Jersey Times, this new law,
which will go into effect on August 1st of this year, is said to apply only
to adults who have received a diagnosis of terminal illness,
which is defined as an incurable, irreversible,
and medically confirmed disease, that could possibly
end the person's life in six months.
The article further states that people with disabilities are
not considered terminally ill and anyone who coerces a patient
into requesting or taking medication to end their life will face
up to five years in prison or a fine up to $15,000 or both.
But all this remains to be seen.
Personally, I believe a law like this one,
in which the voters of this state had no say whatsoever,
will set a dangerous precedent in New Jersey, and in other states
like California and Hawaii which have also passed similar legislation.
As I sit here today writing this post I can't help but remember
the controversial legal case from nearly 20 years ago,
which centered around the right-to-life of a brain-damaged
woman in Florida named Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo.
Terri, as she was called by her family and friends,
was only a month older than me.
The tragic outcome of her case seemed to confirm the words
spoken by Father MacIntyre in that long ago classroom.
Terri was a beautiful, 26 year old resident of St. Petersburg, where
she lived with her husband, Michael Schiavo and their pet cats. One
night in February, 1990 she collapsed at home due to cardiac arrest.
Although she was later resuscitated, doctors discovered
that Terri had suffered massive brain damage due to lack
of oxygen to her brain and had been left comatose.
After two and a half months of no improvement in her condition,
Terri's diagnosis was changed from
"comatose" to "persistent vegetative state".
For the next two years, doctors would attempt to give her speech and
physical therapy as well as other experimental therapy, hoping that she
might regain some awareness, but her condition remained unchanged.
However, I have seen videos of Terri made by her family in which
she seems to be trying to not only respond to the voices of her
father and mother but is watching a balloon floating
in the air above the bed in her room at the hospice care facility.
Terri was not brain dead, she was brain-damaged.
There is a major difference between these two conditions.
However, eight years after she collapsed that night, Terri's
husband, Michael Schiavo, who was now involved with another
woman, petitioned the Sixth District Court of Florida to have
Terri's feeding tube removed, alleging that she had once told him
she would never want to live in a vegetative state.
Robert and Mary Schindler challenged their former son-in-law's
claim. They knew that despite the injury to their daughter's
brain, Terri did try to communicate with them.
It was her body which had suffered damage.
Not her soul.
The legal battle between Terri's parents and Michael Schiavo
would continue in the Florida court system for several more years,
in what would become one of the most contentious
right-to-life vs. right-to-die cases in our nation's recent history.
The fight to save this young woman's life came to an end
in early 2005, when, in February of that year, ironically
the very same month in which Terri had suffered
her traumatic brain injury, Pinellas County
Judge George Greer ordered that her
feeding tube once again be removed.
Several appeals of the order were immediately issued,
and even the federal government intervened, with an
emergency session in Congress and President George W. Bush
returning to Washington to sign legislation to move Terri's
case to the federal courts in a last bid attempt to save her life.
Unfortunately, the appeals in federal court also failed and
the staff at the Pinellas Pines hospice facility carried out
the order to remove Teri's feeding tube on March 18, 2005.
Local police were sent in to stand guard outside of
Terri's room to prevent her family or anyone
else from trying to bring her food or water.
For thirteen agonizing days, Terri clung to life,
while public figures as diverse as pro-life advocate Randall Terry
and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, rallied to her defense.
Meanwhile, a media circus erupted on the grounds of
the hospice where Terri lay slowly and painfully succumbing
to her torturous court-mandated fate. Crowds of protesters, both for and
against the taking of her life, screamed at and argued back and forth at each
other, while Americans with deep respect for the sanctity of life
came from all over the nation to show their support
for Terri and the Schindler family and some of them
even conspired to sneak into the building to bring Terri ice chips.
Heartbroken Robert and Mary Schindler literally begged before the cameras
for Judge Greer to reverse his decision and spare their oldest child's life,
and to permit them to take Terri into their home to care for her.
Meanwhile, Terri's sister, Suzanne, and her brother, Bobby,
were allowed a brief visit to her heavily guarded hospice
room only hours before her death.
The excerpt below is from an article written
by pro-life advocate Father Frank Pavone,
who was also permitted to be with Terri
on that final night:
"There was a little night table in the room. I could put my hand on the
table and on Terri's head all within arm's reach. And on that table was a
vase of flowers filled with water, And I looked at the flowers. They
were beautiful. There were roses and other types of flowers and there
was another vase at the foot of the bed. I saw two beautiful bouquets
of flowers filled with water-fully nourished, living beautiful.
And I said to myself, this is absurd, totally absurd.
These flowers are being treated better than this woman.
She has not had a drop of water for almost two weeks.
Why are those flowers there? What type of hypocrisy is this?
The flowers were watered. Terri wasn't.
And had I dipped my hand in that water and put it on her tongue,
the (police) officer (stationed in the room) would have
led me out, probably under arrest.
Something is wrong here....I also pointed out that night, and the
next morning that...Terri's death was not at all peaceful and beautiful.
It was, on the contrary, quite horrifying. In all my years as a
priest, I never saw anything like it before."
Father Pavone further stated that Terri's case was not about the withdrawal
of life-saving medical treatment, but about the killing of a healthy
person whose life some regarded as worthless despite the fact
that she was not dying, she was not on life support,
and she did not have any terminal illness.
Terri died because her estranged husband convinced
the Florida court system that his former wife would not
want to live with her disability. Whether this is true or
not we will never know. The ultimate injustice
in her all too brief life was in the decision
executed by a government-appointed official,
which sentenced this innocent woman to death.
Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo
December 3, 1963- March 31, 2005
May She Rest In Peace
"My soul, wait only upon God and silently submit to Him;
for my hope and expectation are from Him."
Psalm 62:5
Governor Murphy has already proven that he has absolutely no
problem with ignoring the voices of the vulnerable, particularly the unborn.
Not only is he radically pro-abortion, but credits the support of Planned Parenthood
as one of the primary reason for him winning the 2017 gubernatorial election.
As stated in a recent article in the South Jersey Times, this new law,
which will go into effect on August 1st of this year, is said to apply only
to adults who have received a diagnosis of terminal illness,
which is defined as an incurable, irreversible,
and medically confirmed disease, that could possibly
end the person's life in six months.
The article further states that people with disabilities are
not considered terminally ill and anyone who coerces a patient
into requesting or taking medication to end their life will face
up to five years in prison or a fine up to $15,000 or both.
But all this remains to be seen.
Personally, I believe a law like this one,
in which the voters of this state had no say whatsoever,
will set a dangerous precedent in New Jersey, and in other states
like California and Hawaii which have also passed similar legislation.
As I sit here today writing this post I can't help but remember
the controversial legal case from nearly 20 years ago,
which centered around the right-to-life of a brain-damaged
woman in Florida named Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo.
Terri, as she was called by her family and friends,
was only a month older than me.
The tragic outcome of her case seemed to confirm the words
spoken by Father MacIntyre in that long ago classroom.
Terri was a beautiful, 26 year old resident of St. Petersburg, where
she lived with her husband, Michael Schiavo and their pet cats. One
night in February, 1990 she collapsed at home due to cardiac arrest.
Although she was later resuscitated, doctors discovered
that Terri had suffered massive brain damage due to lack
of oxygen to her brain and had been left comatose.
After two and a half months of no improvement in her condition,
Terri's diagnosis was changed from
"comatose" to "persistent vegetative state".
For the next two years, doctors would attempt to give her speech and
physical therapy as well as other experimental therapy, hoping that she
might regain some awareness, but her condition remained unchanged.
However, I have seen videos of Terri made by her family in which
she seems to be trying to not only respond to the voices of her
father and mother but is watching a balloon floating
in the air above the bed in her room at the hospice care facility.
Terri was not brain dead, she was brain-damaged.
There is a major difference between these two conditions.
However, eight years after she collapsed that night, Terri's
husband, Michael Schiavo, who was now involved with another
woman, petitioned the Sixth District Court of Florida to have
Terri's feeding tube removed, alleging that she had once told him
she would never want to live in a vegetative state.
Robert and Mary Schindler challenged their former son-in-law's
claim. They knew that despite the injury to their daughter's
brain, Terri did try to communicate with them.
It was her body which had suffered damage.
Not her soul.
The legal battle between Terri's parents and Michael Schiavo
would continue in the Florida court system for several more years,
in what would become one of the most contentious
right-to-life vs. right-to-die cases in our nation's recent history.
The fight to save this young woman's life came to an end
in early 2005, when, in February of that year, ironically
the very same month in which Terri had suffered
her traumatic brain injury, Pinellas County
Judge George Greer ordered that her
feeding tube once again be removed.
Several appeals of the order were immediately issued,
and even the federal government intervened, with an
emergency session in Congress and President George W. Bush
returning to Washington to sign legislation to move Terri's
case to the federal courts in a last bid attempt to save her life.
Unfortunately, the appeals in federal court also failed and
the staff at the Pinellas Pines hospice facility carried out
the order to remove Teri's feeding tube on March 18, 2005.
Local police were sent in to stand guard outside of
Terri's room to prevent her family or anyone
else from trying to bring her food or water.
For thirteen agonizing days, Terri clung to life,
while public figures as diverse as pro-life advocate Randall Terry
and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, rallied to her defense.
Meanwhile, a media circus erupted on the grounds of
the hospice where Terri lay slowly and painfully succumbing
to her torturous court-mandated fate. Crowds of protesters, both for and
against the taking of her life, screamed at and argued back and forth at each
other, while Americans with deep respect for the sanctity of life
came from all over the nation to show their support
for Terri and the Schindler family and some of them
even conspired to sneak into the building to bring Terri ice chips.
Heartbroken Robert and Mary Schindler literally begged before the cameras
for Judge Greer to reverse his decision and spare their oldest child's life,
and to permit them to take Terri into their home to care for her.
Meanwhile, Terri's sister, Suzanne, and her brother, Bobby,
were allowed a brief visit to her heavily guarded hospice
room only hours before her death.
The excerpt below is from an article written
by pro-life advocate Father Frank Pavone,
who was also permitted to be with Terri
on that final night:
"There was a little night table in the room. I could put my hand on the
table and on Terri's head all within arm's reach. And on that table was a
vase of flowers filled with water, And I looked at the flowers. They
were beautiful. There were roses and other types of flowers and there
was another vase at the foot of the bed. I saw two beautiful bouquets
of flowers filled with water-fully nourished, living beautiful.
And I said to myself, this is absurd, totally absurd.
These flowers are being treated better than this woman.
She has not had a drop of water for almost two weeks.
Why are those flowers there? What type of hypocrisy is this?
The flowers were watered. Terri wasn't.
And had I dipped my hand in that water and put it on her tongue,
the (police) officer (stationed in the room) would have
led me out, probably under arrest.
Something is wrong here....I also pointed out that night, and the
next morning that...Terri's death was not at all peaceful and beautiful.
It was, on the contrary, quite horrifying. In all my years as a
priest, I never saw anything like it before."
Father Pavone further stated that Terri's case was not about the withdrawal
of life-saving medical treatment, but about the killing of a healthy
person whose life some regarded as worthless despite the fact
that she was not dying, she was not on life support,
and she did not have any terminal illness.
Terri died because her estranged husband convinced
the Florida court system that his former wife would not
want to live with her disability. Whether this is true or
not we will never know. The ultimate injustice
in her all too brief life was in the decision
executed by a government-appointed official,
which sentenced this innocent woman to death.
December 3, 1963- March 31, 2005
May She Rest In Peace
"My soul, wait only upon God and silently submit to Him;
for my hope and expectation are from Him."
Psalm 62:5
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